![]() |
Basudhara Roy |
Staying Awake
Restless to fly,
my words move to the windward side.
On the tongue’s leeward slope,
meanings remain for you to find them.
Above us, the sky is plaiting stars into the
night's coiffure.
With the moon's currency, we buy sleep.
Everywhere, the evening's rain is softly
making love
to the earth's adobe dreams.
You ask me to count the syllables of a sigh.
In love's architecture, each one is unique.
On the night's dark brocade, I write my
longings to you
only to unhook them letter by letter at the
break of day.
They linger intact on the ether.
At dawn you wonder how the breeze
fingering your face has memorized its
tables of waiting.
You realize it has watched over you all
night, staying awake.
To Love You
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."
- Elizabeth Barrett
Browning
To love you, I must walk
unceasingly
by your side, toil
laboriously under
your sun, share the
wide, unending
sky of your dreams. I
must learn to
encounter your dark,
sift through
the reluctance of your
days to trace
in my own heart’s veins
contours
of your old, undissolved
pains.
I must travel to your
long-lost
innocence, to the
wondrous suns
of your youth, to its
deciduous rains,
to your tops, kites,
marbles, books,
to the husk of your
early being
before you sprouted
fruit. I must
find your rooftops, your
courtyards,
your mouth organ, your
songs, feel
the flutter of your
yearnings as you
seek flowers along the
meanders of
your dusty afternoons. I
must wear
your wind, your water,
your petrichor,
your loam; I must dwell
in your
fragrances, your fears,
the fault-lines
of your home, and the
places that grew
into you like moss even
before you
were born. To love you,
I must mourn
your losses anew, write
on my prayers
your own, thread myself
through your
needs so I can always
inhabit you
like a tree throbbing
within a seed, though
unborn, desirous always
of sprouting roots.
***
No comments :
Post a Comment
We welcome your comments related to the article and the topic being discussed. We expect the comments to be courteous, and respectful of the author and other commenters. Setu reserves the right to moderate, remove or reject comments that contain foul language, insult, hatred, personal information or indicate bad intention. The views expressed in comments reflect those of the commenter, not the official views of the Setu editorial board. рдк्рд░рдХाрд╢िрдд рд░рдЪрдиा рд╕े рд╕рдо्рдмंрдзिрдд рд╢ाрд▓ीрди рд╕рдо्рд╡ाрдж рдХा рд╕्рд╡ाрдЧрдд рд╣ै।