Nilambri Ghai, Montreal Serai’s then Ottawa correspondent, written on the occasion of it’s 10th anniversary, Fall 1996.

Serai Sands

A decade slips by

A millennium approaches

And we return

To search for new Serais

For blinded and stunned travellers…

Collectors of treasure boxes…

Each grain taken away, one by one

Till there is just one left

In some hidden crack of an old, empty box

Alone…

Waiting for others…

Precious grain of sand…

To be collected by those who will replace

These dark strands of hair turning silver…

To create oceans of sand in cold, foreign lands…

To sleep in sparsely furnished

Rooms of desert Serais

To melt stones, to chill bones…

To play to empty halls..

To love on streets and stage…

To churn words into editorials…

To write histories..

To play tunes to words

For almost nothing…

To collect…

A few more grains of sand..

And to pass on

To yet another Serai