Dear Poet Friends, while trying to retrieve my old poems from ‘Poetfreak.com’ which is closing down by this year end, I found this love poem of mine which was composed in the year 2010!  Hope you like this short love poem where the beloved begs her lover not to leave, but to spend the night under the ‘shamiana’- which is the ‘canopy cover’ created by her dark eye lashes! Hope you like the same! Thanks, - Raj, New Delhi.  

UNDER THE SHAMIANA OF MY
        DARK EYE LASHES !

O my love, please do not insist on leaving me
tonight!
Instead, keep sitting under the shadows of my
collyrium-laden eye lashes,
Where you shall find peace comfort and
solace!
Please do not insist on leaving again, nor be
adamant;
Sit under the sprawling shamiana* of my
gazelle-like eye lashes,
Which I have spread beside the oasis of my
two brimming eyes, -
Whose bottomless depths reflect my love for
you always!
For here you may bathe to get refreshed,
and sip your sweet vine sitting by my side!
But do not insist on leaving me behind,
to remain alone in the silence of this night!

My love, let us sit and relish these few ephemeral
measured moments,
Granted to us by the munificence of merciless time!
For once gone, these moments shall return no
more!
Whisper softly into my ears those sweet words
of love;
Saying all the while how you love me,
How you cannot live without me, even though
it be against your will!
And transform this into a magical, mystical
night!
For even a falsehood spoken convincingly, and
repeated like a sweet refrain, again, and again,
Assumes the colour of Truth, I heard people say!
But your words shall make this lovelorn life of
mine worthwhile;
And all my efforts to possess you for the night
shall not go in vain!
                                              - Raj Nandy
(* Shamiana = like a tent or a canopy cover)