Disillusion

I once thought  
I would love you for ever.
So intense was the beauty of my love for you
That the wrinkles fanning your eyes
Were tributaries of the Ganges or the Kaveri,

plunging into the delta of your gaze.
And I an eagle soaring
Over the  landscape of your face. 

 

Now, the flood of our love

Is a dying stream,

Stifling the little fish

That darted like quicksilver, 

Warmed by the sunlight of our passion.

Today your wrinkles are just that,
And the flax flesh of my belly
Which once shone  with the patina
of your desire,  just that.

Today we look into each other’s eyes
But our gaze is turned inwards,
To the murky depths
Of our unspoken thoughts.

Seesaw

 A  dreary, grey day of incessant rains.

Droplets of water clinging to bare branches ,

Time pooling into minutes,

minutes into hours.

The ticking of the clock,

The creaking of floorboards,

The indistinct gobbledygook of the TV.

 

On such days the mind wanders,

To Mali and its dusty, potholed streets,

Adrift in a sea of green, blue, red  metal steeds,

Sputtering, phuttering , clanking, honking,

And yellow motorised boxes, coughing

black smoke, rattling and juddering 

To Tomokorobougou, Badalabougou

Medinakoura, Sebenikoro.

Faces at the window,"100 cfa please",

« Madame livres pour enfants, peignes, mouchoirs,"

"No, don't clean my window, don't!'" to no avail.

 An onslaught of life,

Battering the fragile ramparts of self.

 

At such moments, the mind wanders,

To a quiet, rainy day, droplets of water

Clinging to bare branches like a necklace of tears.  

 

Arunima