If it is up there, you ought to grab it
like you did without worry as a child—
steal guavas from any tree in our piddling purview,
even from the guarded gardens, strictly forbidden. 

At ease in your elastic enjoyment, detached
from backlash, even while in the frame of the crime
with friends of same feathers, thick as thieves,
like a pandemonium of parrots who just flitted away.

I have them still, my friends of plunder & pillage,
yet I find them today in their pockets & protocols
of propriety & parenthood, reluctant to rob remembrances—
too busy to share the tricky tales of our thefts, together. 

***

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Debasis Tripathy was born in Odisha, India. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Decomp, UCity Review, Rogue Agent, Leon Lit, Vayavya, Mantle Poetry, and several other journals online and in print. He lives in Bangalore, where he works in information technology.