Astronomer – A K Ramanujan
Sky-man in a manhole
with astronomy for dream,
astrology for nightmare;
fat man full of proverbs,
the language of lean years,
living in square after
almanac square prefiguring
the day of windfall and landslide
through a calculus of good hours,
clutching at the tear
in his birthday shirt
as at a hole in his
mildewed horoscope,
squinting at the
parallax of black planets,
his Tiger, his Hare
moving in Sanskrit zodiacs,
forever troubled by the fractions,
the kidneys
in his Tamil flesh,
his body the Great Bear
dipping for the honey,
the woman-smell
in the small curly hair
down there.
Astronomer – A K Ramanujan