The first line iced with hope; straight from the heart.
Melody striving to impress; the sound of a fresh start,
The world would hear the latent pain- only they listened closely.
And maybe in those happy lyrics, they would see the irony.

No, never with their minds; they only listened with their ears.
Only heard her 'happy' melody; never her unspoken fears.
Sung too many times, her chorus had lost its charm.
'Encore. Encore. It can't possibly do you any harm.'

The winds yelled cruelly, the clouds roared with fury and might.
Trials and tribulations; the universe always ready to pick a fight.
There was no exit from this world- this battlefield of horror,
Where soldiers trudged unarmed, yet unscathed never.

Nostalgia struck; breaking through her unfortified mind.
The prettiest of smiles on her lips; it was time to rewind.
There was no audience; not a soul around to stare.
Singing on the road sans inhibition, she had not a care.

Soothing soothing melody, soul-embracing lyrics
There was nothing her dimpled smile couldn't fix.
Her thoughts were joyous rainbows, her sorrows balloons
With every verse they burst and fell into ruins.

His smiling eyes stared only into hers,
In her head she could hear the delightful verse.
Their walks infinite, their talks ceaseless.
Like the rhythm of her melody- a pleasant weakness.

Curiosity, confession, chaos.
Silence in her mind and silence outside it.
Misconceptions, melancholy, mistaken.
She paid for her actions in tears.

Black balloons in the black sky surged one by one,
Her thoughts were rain in a sky sans sun.
Her departed dimpled smile nothing could ever fix,
Painful painful melody and emotionally deafening lyrics.

On a derelict island lived a solitary youth,
A desolate prisoner of his own- the unfathomable truth.
Enclosed by the fence which his own hands had built.
All day he lay, still as a rock, eyes fixed on the silt.

From his enclosure, the same sorry shells he would collect everyday.
And when he put them together, they never failed to look the same way.
The job he once loved was now monotonous and mundane,
No longer did people want to see his shells- so ordinary and plain.

One warm day, a shell so unlike the others his fence did hit,
Fascinated, he took down a piece of his fence with a new-found grit,
Joyously, he discovered a whole wide world of many a beauteous shell,
Vivacity enveloped him and godspeed, he took down the rest of his fence as well.

But the island, in reality, was his isolated mind,
The fence, the enclosure for his mind, around the ‘island’ was aligned.
The shells stood for thoughts, words and the inspiration he could attain.
As the writer opened up his mind, he fell in love with words again.

Twilight. Clear skies. The merry Moon brightened.
Past a million faceless entities, he clumsily hastened.
Concerned glances- he emanated an incomprehensible sorrow.
Yet his sad eyes met none; he walked on-his head hanging low.

Her endearing smile- from one dimple to the other it had playfully run,
The dreamy sparkle in her enchanting eyes as she had spoken, sans inhibition.
The embarrassed blush that would succeed her laugh- untamed and resonating.
Which to his ears was a symphony of the finest notes, of the richest tuning.

In the days close to curtain-fall, ceased had her symphony’s pleasant sound.
The sparkle cruelly fled her eyes, as her golden locks embraced the ground.
How he had yearned for the malevolent illness to leave and return their bliss.
But he could only remain spectator as dreary Death proceeded to make her His…

Armed with tears, the pretty lilies on the prettier Lily’s gravestone laid he,
In the eerie silence, the symphony in his mind his sole solace would be.
As his tears hit the soil, she looked down and sobbed without respite.
The melancholy Moon dulled. Overcast skies. Night.

The lonely innkeeper sat by the solitary window...
Hazel eyes on the sea, she recalled her every woe.
The bright-eyed children of #201 toward her desk came.
‘Tell us a story of the sea!’ they begged the lonely dame.

Within moments, the story formed on the innkeeper’s lips,
‘On a wide dock, there once were two ships.
The first was huge and beautiful, the second, plain and pale.
Despite this, as one, the two ships set sail.

At the very beginning, the strong wind was a perfect guide,
The two ships, in symphony, sailed side by side.
Through the smooth sail, they stuck together like man and wife,
Like they were built to be eternal companions in the sea of life.

Then came tumult, and everything was a blur.
The storm took over the first ship like a puppet-master.
To a deserted land the first ship was sent,
With an adoration so bizarre, in its pursuit the second ship went.

Desolate was the land; the wind was stubborn,
Two whole days there were spent, and events took a sorry turn.
In the hull of the second ship now lay a gaping dent,
And just then, a powerful wind from the skies was sent.

The second ship, a *******, could only watch with pain,
As the silhouette of the first ship began to wane.
On the lonely land remained the helpless ship,
Now in ruins, happiness spiraled out of its grip.’

‘Did the second ship live happily ever after?’ asked the bright-eyed lad,
The lonely innkeeper retorted with a smile so sad.
A sea could be drowned in her excessively deep pain,
Perhaps it was time for the crippled innkeeper to set sail again.

One day, on the gilded coast with the waves I’ll run.
And hug you the way they embrace the golden shore.
One day with tear-filled eyes, I’ll watch the setting sun,
The way I looked on sadly when you could stay no more.

One day, a romance novel I shall entirely decipher,
The way I read you and your myriad faces…
One day, I’ll paint a colourful, pretty picture,
The way you patiently painted my life’s empty canvas.

One day, I’ll run like the wind, sans destination
The way you make my heart race as you run through my mind.
One day, I’ll hum a tune as I behold the rising sun.
Though it will never be as melodious as your laugh- one of a kind.

One day on my lips, a smile will once again be,
Like the one that reached your dimples when we walked on our own.
One day, I’ll wake up and swim in an ice-cold sea,
To experience the coldness you feel under your gravestone.

The peals of laughter, the smiles
The atmosphere was one of joy and tranquility
Shivers ran up his spine, it disgusted him,
The time had come, the end was near…

The burning desire to evoke pain,
The grave thirst to summon tears.
The murderer’s instinct to ****,
The time had come, the end was near…

As the unnoticed silhouette crept by,
Irrevocable, irredeemable, insolent.
The assailant’s eyes filled with ardent desire,
The time had come, the end was near…

The screams, the pain, the sorrow,
The thirst which only tears and blood could quench,
His sole want-terror, his sole weapon-death,
The time had come, the end was here.