UNDYING LOVE

             

                          

                                           

                                                    i

I saw her when I was ten and she five,

Her curls took my cough away;

Her eyes were a walk in the clouds

Her smile had the innocence of time.

                                        She extended her hands of friendship,

I felt like I won a battle then;

We shared the jelly from my plate,

Everyone said the party was great, I said it was the best.

 ii

She grew up, so did I;

No more did she accompanied me for butterfly chase,

No more did she tie her hair in pony;

She was shyer than the evening sun.

I said why she was so different from what she was;

The reply ran, “I am sixteen, should be sweet, should be smart.”

Then came the day when she had to leave the town,

She hugged me and said, “How do tears look in my eyes?”

I stammered, “Like pearl in an oyster’s bed.”

                                                           iii

I got a small job, and a small house for myself, tried hard to settle down,

But the laughter and the memories of her never left me;

I knelt to the Heaven to make her pass my way,

Then the day came like snow during summers.

She was twenty-eight; she had a ring on her finger;

Her groom to be looked like a dream made for her,

She told me to be there for the wedding;

I bite my lips and said, “If only you share a jelly with me.”

iv

Twenty years went by after the wedding,

I was living my life like an old confirm bachelor, with a dog and some old files;

Then there was a knock at the door, the guest was someone I had known,

She had ripened like an autumn fruit, she looked good as always.

Learned that she was a widow now, with no children,

Life had been unkind to her but she had no complaints;

Then she looked at me and asked, “Never brought flowers for a woman?”

I replied, “The only woman I ever loved was herself a bouquet of flowers.”

 v

When she rose up to go, the moon peeped at us from the window,

I wanted her to stay, then and forever;

So I caught hold of her hand, but words were like a drought,

She looked deep into my eyes, must have seen my soul;

 I felt what I felt when I was ten as she said, “What took you so long?”

And all I know was between now and then I love her, and will do so.

*The edited version of this poem can be found in Ayangti Longkumer's Magic Quill.

1 DAY IN JNU WITH A 3RD GRADE CAMERA...

A Dirty Cup: Beauty
8 AM: I was about to puke when I saw this cup...milk residues drank by Helen of Troy. Just kidding, steel was not discovered during that period.

Water flowing  out: Blessings 
10 AM: When to library, saw this pipe leaking. No one gave a shit about it.  Resource gone wasted, economics is dead.

Books in a Carton Box: Wisdom
12 PM: Books, kids' books, hunted but did not buy. I don't have kids right at this point of my life but I am a kind too.

Pipeline in forest: Tolerance
2 PM: Big pipe line for water supply. Yeah, water supply, I got it...you gotta be kidding me

Hahahaha: Mystery
3  PM: Apart from some office staffs there are birds who knows how to kill time.

A Lonely bus on the road: Time and Relationship
4 PM: Buses cool, but drivers driving it like a bike from some action movie? So uncool. Over time the number of vehicles in JNU has increased but not the size of the road.

Paper tea cup and a bicycle: friendship and youth
5 PM: It is a pleasure to drink tea and ride around the campus but sometimes you end up meeting people whom you best like to avoid.

Dry leaves creeping on the tree: Old age has its own glory
9 AM: JNU looks so fresh in the morning with stray dogs following you like a piece of done, big bone. 

NOT JUST CAKES AND EGGS

God, there must be a reason why you don’t show your face anymore;

Though in signs who have shown your existence, in the land of fools it is often misinterpreted,

There is pardon and mercy only in Your name, but they cannot get enough even from the blood that was shed;

I surrender to you completely, but let this not be a contest; You hate spiritual pride, don’t You?

Entangled in all these confusions are Your own people, they say they are liberated souls, I believe they are wrong and the nights are still cold.

She said You will punish me, is it true? Tell me that she is wrong, that she doesn’t know You yet.

They said they believe in miracles, what great miracle they want when they don’t even hear the tap in their house leaking.

There was a ring which she believed that could define her, she waited and waited till she realized that there was nothing as such, I saw the cross and the burden.

I felt You years ago, there was this ripping of flesh feeling when You touched me.

I am not even an inch closer to the earthy definition of word ‘pure’, and that is why I am writing this note to You, but I already know what Your reply will be,

After hours it will be another day, and I have to find Thee in all the mysterious of this world.

*The edited version of this poem can be found in Ayangti Longkumer's Magic Quill.