This moment I share with the child just born somewhere
taking its first breath wailing
and my friend here in the hospital bed
gasping out his last breath.
His children chant the glory of Ram.
The room resonates.
Beyond the window the sky resonates.
An eagle circles unhurried
among the rainclouds.
A duster over an old blackboard
erases all jottings.

The first rains of another monsoon
come pouring down.
Together we set paper boats sailing,
over a pool in our backyard,
away somewhere.

Thus at this mysterious meeting place
we realize we have misplaced
the art of remembering each other.

We simply sit facing each other,
a smile glowing between us,
speaking nothing.

I have forgotten the entire way I had flowed
reaching your side,
like a river,
never remembering the meandering way from where.

Your eyes are new to me—
long dark lashes wet and beautiful!
You have my reflection there in a sprouting teardrop.
A distilled drop in a deep blue lagoon...

Shall I, dearest, kiss it softly away?
Though I know not your name...

On my windowsill,
flapping, a dove perches still...
Ooo too close I freeze!
Feathers glistening
metallic, yet soft-crooning—
our eyes meet spellbound!

And then these convalescent, brooding,
days come tumbling one over the other
in silent succession,
talking to me in familiar gestures—
now the municipal garbage gatherer
emptying the bin of yesterday’s waste,
then the unsmiling milk vending dame
carrying light her kettle and measure,
the newspaper boy flinging the day's fare
with the same precision over the gate,
the twin-jingle of his bicycle bell
vanishing round the corner of the street...

I keep reciting the lines again and again
as though learning by heart
the jingle of an old nursery rhyme…
Ding, ****, bell,
*****’s in the well!
Ding, ****, bell…

You will never tell me,
will you,
what blessings you sought,
what silent wishes,
hands folded in prayers yesterday
in the sacred grove of our illusions.

You merely smiled.
The peacock spread its plumes
and danced for me.
A whole constellation of stars,
shifting...

And nothing happened, dearest,
the whole of this evening too—
there was no sunset,
the rainclouds,
heavy in the skies...

You didn't come; it didn't rain.
Only the sea...restless.

For days it was as if I never existed.
You have flung me out of your world
like a wilted flower from your vase.

I have treasured our unuttered pledges—
rising with your name as a prayer on my lips,
breathing the morning breeze,
marveling,
oh God, isn’t this the same fragrance my dear one breathes!

I waited beneath your window last night,
heart aflutter under the moon,
for a rustle at the curtain,
a fleeting glimpse of your shadow...

Throughout you kept it shut.