Always on the outside, looking in - Baruk Feddabon

Always on the outside,
looking in.
Nose flat against the window pane
fogging it up till each
little breath becomes a
thing,

round and cold, and often
wet,
slipping
in to and out of
and in to
and out of

and
round and round the merry rascals ran
and
all around the (bloody) mulberry bush
and
uphill and downhill and inmylady's chamber

till
passing car lights
reveal a startled reflection,

Nose flat against the window pane
fogging it up till each
little breath becomes a
thing,
Always on the outside,
looking in.


Baruk is of Mizo blood on the maternal side, his mother being the much-admired Malsawmi Jacob. Born in Mizoram and brought up in Shillong, he now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, all of which should immediately explain where this poem comes from.