Poetry
Without you
As a boat cast out on ocean waves
I’ve learnt to listen
For the unending breeze.
(I learnt quite young
Of endings –
How to reimagine them,
Until too many barren years leave
No other choice
But to say ‘The End’.
A quiet whisper,
A delayed reaction,
A long ache culminating in
Sick, fatal
Convulsions,
And then no more.)
Rocking now
Upon the ebbing sea
I stay quiet, mostly,
And smile at things
Only turtles comprehend.
Once, I stroked a shark,
Tenderly,
And I have visited many a shore.
I see the sidelong glances
People give each other.
Do you know that
You, too, once conspired in sly looks?
Alone now
As I ever was
I listen for your breathsong,
Whistling in the wind.
I’ve learnt to love
The chill
Of alone,
And the warm of together,
When it comes.
For when it goes
The white foam still
Crashes on
Even as it churns and sinks
The lands that call us home.
