-1-
Almost always
Almost always
Thoughts of love invade the mind
And she is overwhelmed with longing
The heart says that she will never love again
The way she could have loved,
There can’t be anyone alike .
So she almost thinks of asking from God,
After she is dead,
And thinks of sitting in the Eden with love, under a
tree,
Shoulder to shoulder
Hands entwined,
Toes playing and souls merged.
But then she remembers
That it was only she who ran helter and skelter
Clutching to love,
People looked for other things
And ran forever,
Without twitching an eyebrow,
And ran forever,
Without twitching an eyebrow,
For pretty brides, parents, friends, relatives
Parties, progeny, convenience, social standing,
skin, freedom,
Projects, needs and fifteen years of sex.
She relents and falls silent.
-2-
Over her happiness,
Who bartered her heart
With conditions of not to seek joy in exchange of
Their so-called dignified existence.
I tell her to go
And love that man
Who curses her, rebukes her,
Gets angry with her
And stops talking from while to while
But can not imagine a life without her,
Can’t go seeking happiness in some other woman,
Some other face,
Who, though fumes and smokes
That she keeps him at bay,
can stand and wait at Eternity’s gate
but can’t stop loving her ever.
-3-
Women,
Keep away from married men
And their fanciful engaging conversations
And the glint in the hovering eyes.
They are just bored with
Their everyday existence
And old and used things.
And are on a look out for new excitements.
They will never hold your hand in the light,
They will never take you home,
At the end of the day,
They will go back to the safety of their happy homes
So, strike your conversation,
Finish it to a camaraderie cut,
And move on.
Women,
Don’t loathe men who dumped you
And went for other pastures,
Pray for them, for their pretty wives and cute children,
Their happy homes and restless souls,
Their successes and dreams,
They have got what they chose.
If you loved them,
Pray for their happiness and move on.
-4-
She will leave the house some day now
Where she had entered with her crowded self
Head in the clouds
And thoughts scattered.
That is the house
Where love could have entered
(Is love ever cautious?)
Its presence keeping the air inside fragrant
Forever, except a bit of doubt
And a whole lot of longing.
Love would have moved around in the small space,
Sleeping on the ground with oiled head
One hand clasping another, holding tight
Onto heart
She just kept thinking in disbelief.
She dreamt of love
In a house, where love and she, could spend some
Intimate moments, breath upon breath,
Lips upon lips,
Where they could have sat shoulder to shoulder
Talking madness.
These is the house
Where longing for love turned into something else
And departed
Leaving her teary and sad
Like an abandoned child.
Houses will change,
Dreams will fade under layers of time
And incidents,
Some of them she will carry to a new house,
And keep it her own,
With nobody to share.
She will also carry the faint picture of lovelorn
People, detained for sometime
At time’s get-way,
And then vanishing
Into the mist.
-5-
The lights faded little by little
In the unstable sky,
The tinge of red lingered in the horizon
Following the sun- down,
As darkness fell,
Trees turned into ghosts
And stood unmoving.
The river shone in its silvery light,
In the empty part of the sandy bed,
A bunch of kids stood
In a weird formation,
Not playing, not shouting,
Looking like Martians on a strange search
On the earth.
I looked at the passing scene
And death seemed
A soothing intermission
Before embarking on a new journey,
On board a new train.
