To Somik on his birthday

`
A mass of men and women
Walk on;
Faces meet, and part,
Strangers grow stranger,
And masks all around...

Here's a friend, and there's a friend,
They hear you, they do not listen,
They see you, they do not observe,
And they're friends...

Thank you God,
I am one of those lucky few --
Someone listens to my unspoken words,
Observes my face beneath painted masks,
Someone knows me inside out,
I am not the strangest in this strange crowd.
`

Pilani, RJ,

November, 2003