Procession … Benares, 1977.

Leaping & striding

comes a passing chaos

of ashen men,

adorned in chalks

of blue & grey,

glorious in cloth

of red & gold,

glimpsed rippling

upon shoulders

once bare,

& as royalty

perched atop elephants,

beasts lumbering & bedecked,

ancient people

their mouths to shell & trumpet,

to announce

the moment

this late

afternoon.