I went to your apartment yesterday,
You weren't there, but everything still
Felt like home.

As I opened the door, your
Familiar fragrance hugged me tight,
Just as you used to.

My favorite shirt lay crumpled on the bed,
As if you'd left it naughtily there to remind me
How I've ruined it one too many times.

I grabbed it and smelled it deep,
I inhaled the scent of your chest, your shoulders,
Your arms, oh your arms that I love so much.

I lay on your bed with my senses
Buried inside your shirt, inside your beautiful self,
I cried and I laughed at the same time.

Little had changed in your room
Since I'd left.
I wished this room mirrored our lives.

I hoped you'd return early,
And find me curled up inside the blanket
Of those million memories we'd created together,

But you didn't come, and it got dark outside,
And suffocating and unwelcoming,
And lonely inside.

I left, clutching the keys firmly in my palm,
They're all I have now, to spare me of the pain,
That stings me day and night.

Whirlwind romances aren't
Meant to be clung on to.
You ride the wave,
And when the peak is through,

You have to deeply inhale,
And no matter how distraught
you may be, jump instantly
With no second thoughts.

But I forgot to open my eyes,
When I did, I was all alone,
The ****** had ebbed and
You, my darling, were long gone,

Leaving me entangled forever
In this dark trough of gloom,
Where time is slow and evil
And the ghost of silence looms.

Whirlwind romances aren't
Meant to be clung on to.
I wish I'd remembered,
And jumped off with you.

You probably saw her sometime, but
Didn't spare her more than a second look,
Demure girl, purple kurta-white salwar,
Quite routine, nothing out of the books.

Oh but I saw her, the true her,
Slender hands controlling a sturdy Enfield,
Salwar flapping wildly, freely against the wind.
Must admit, I couldn't stop looking!

Oh Winter, I welcome you,
Your nippy air, your kindling hues,
And the tint they cast on my moods,
Oh Winter, if only you knew,

The simple pleasures your arrival bears-
The precious sleep that only your lullaby brings,
The sudden love for rich food you excite,
And so many other little 'winter things'-

Things like colourful gloves and socks,
And poor unsheltered, chilled pink nose tip,
And age-old pseudo-smoking out cold breath,
And cherry/strawberry/cocoa balms to coat the lips,

Doodling a beloved's name on a frosted window,
And tugging blanket under toes in bed, snugly,
The evening nap feeling more easing than ever,
Followed by heavenly gulps of warm milky coffee.

Oh Winter, despite, as the time of
Separation and Forlornness being ill-famed,
Each time you visit, you touch my senses
And leave them pleasantly tingling and inflamed.

For summer may be bright, sunny and sky-blue,
But you can be an enticing dark, a passionate maroon,
You mischievous cupid hiding under the garb of cosiness,
Refilling hearts with yearnings anew.

Welcome, dear Season of Romance,
Time to commence the routine all over again,
Of you- enthusing me with deep cold-warm sentiments,
And me- writing poems celebrating this eternal game.