Tag Archives: romance

LEFT UNSAID

It was like clockwork:
I’d catch the 8:00 bus to work
And I’d see her sitting
In her salwaar kameez
On the far right
Always absorbed in a book,
Always with her spectacles
Perched on the edge of her nose
And her black hair cascading
In soft curls all the way down
To her lower back.
She turned, smiled and nodded,
Acknowledging the routine
We found ourselves in everyday
And got back to her novel.

It started when she saw me
Throwing an orange peel
Out of the bus window. I didn’t know
What hit me then.
One minute I was discarding waste
And the next
I was the victim of severe berate;
I looked down, embarrassed,
And spluttered words of apology. 

After that, we saw each other
In the bus everyday.
I handed over a poster to her
and returned to my seat.
I smiled as I saw her laugh
With that twinkle in her eye
when she read it:
Cleanliness is next to Godliness
She turned around, gave me a sly
Look and turned away.

She spoke to me sometimes
Asked me where I worked
And what hobbies I enjoyed.
I was so tongue tied, I never
Asked her what she liked or where
She went everyday.

I waited for her one morning
Finally deciding to build up the
Courage and ask her
To meet me somewhere
That wasn’t as crowded, that
Required her sitting facing me,
Maybe with a cup of coffee,
but the bus left the stop
And I craned my neck
trying to spot her.
She must be ill today, maybe tomorrow
I thought to myself
And everyday thereon
I waited for her
But as the days flew by
The flame of hope got smaller
Until it all but diminished
And I never saw her again.

I sat in close proximity
To a beautiful, interesting girl
For nearly fifty two days everyday
And in the time it took me
To realize our eyes had spoken more
Than words could ever communicate,
It was too late for me
To even ask for her name
To remember her by.

A UNIVERSAL DESPONDENCY

Her clumsy footsteps
Lead her slowly across the
Pavement, as she tried
To skip the puddles.
Not that it mattered- the sudden
Rain had already soaked
Her and she shivered
As she tried her best not to
Cry on her way back home.

You ugly freak

The words echoed through
Her head in the same disgusted
Tone and pace her boyfriend
(now, ex-boyfriend) had used,
Knowing that her physical
Insecurities were her only weakness,
And she grimaced as she
Recalled the red glaring eyes and
The sharp noise of the door
Closing on her face.

He’s right, I am a freak.

A little farther down the road,
In a second floor apartment
Of small but neat arrangement
Sat a young boy, an aspiring poet.
He happened to notice a
Small girl skipping every second
Tile on the footpath
And he smiled, amused, at her
Little game. As he watched,
He noticed how her delicate
Fingers twined and fidgeted
And how her graceful calves
Accentuated the length of her legs,
And he composed.
She was a walking inspiration –
A muse of sorts –
And it was a universal
Despondency that the girl who
Believed she wasn’t good enough
Was at that very moment
Inciting balladry in a
Youthful heart.

COGNIZANCE

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I saw him sitting in
the second row, five seats from
the aisle, with those
luscious locks of brown
hair falling loosely over his
eyes, smiling as he chatted
with his friend sitting beside him;
those dimples – a canyon of
ecstasy.
And me? He doesn’t know my name.
he doesn’t even know I exist.
Tomorrow would be three years
of working together
in the same office, a paralegal
he dismissed without even a
glance.
The butterflies in my stomach
snapped me back to reality
as I heard my name being
announced as the next performer
at the Annual Meet of the
Litigators of Fort Prowell.
This is it
I walk onto stage as the sweet
melodies of my favorite
song fill the auditorium,
and I submit myself to
the music. Slowly and steadily,
my nervousness breaks through
and I find myself forgetting
the hundred eyes watching me.
Dance is second nature to me.
It is who I am, it is who I want to be.
I twirl and whirl and hold my
pirouette and I can feel the adrenaline
rush through my veins as I
feel that familiar exhilaration
driving every molecule in my body.
I dedicate this stance to him
As I pour out my emotion
Through my body in the form of
Jumps and splits and I feel
My heart pumping and the music
Getting louder and faster
and as suddenly as I had started
I stop, with the tunes ebbing
and the searing heat of the
white spotlight focused solely on me.
I can hear a thunderous round
of applause and I look up
beaming, confident, happy.
And there he stands tall,
unable to control himself from
whistling and clapping sincerely.
Our eyes lock and three years of
ignorance fade away, three years
of a desperate crush turn to something
more, we’ve spoken a whole lot
without the need for syllables or
speech, and I see him making his
way backstage as I exit, too.

THE TIME KEEPER

It is often quoted
That Time and Tide wait for
No man, but I disagree
Because my time keeper
Seemed to hegemonize
The clock. I say this
Because every hour spent
With my man seems
To flow into another
Like the relentless tones
Of a song that is so beautiful
But ends much too quickly
For my liking. And the days we’re
Apart, each second moves
At a snail’s pace, as even a fortnight
Seems to be a year of separation.
He regulates the minutes
Hand to his liking but he knows
That he cannot dominate
The moments of my love for him
Because not even the
Time keeper himself
Can ever find the juncture
Wherein I cease to love him.

Tick tock tick tock.

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PAPER TREASURE

I found a treasure chest
In the back of my room
Covered with dust and forlorn
In state- It was small
And light and not one to
Impress, But when I opened it
I found something I didn’t
Expect; for what this compact
Package held was so much
More than what it exposed-
It did not hold gold coins
Nor currencies of the ancient times,
rather it unveiled parallel
Worlds of a nature bizarre
Composed of dragons and wars
And wizards and queens,
It introduced me to ideas and
Thoughts and dreams I didn’t
Know I could ever conceive
And it showed me, through
A looking glass, utopia
That existed on the other side
Of the yellow pages
And it was but cellulose that
Separated me from the
Universe I wanted to be a part of.
It wasn’t a mere collection of words
But the birth of civilizations
and mysteries anew, that made me feel
Emotions ranging from love
To hatred towards persons who
Had become a part of my life
In a matter of hours.
I found this paper treasure
In my room on a lucky day
Which operated as a portal
To my own little adventure,
Granted me a hundred lives,
Opened doors to self discovery-
Something material
Wealth could never do.
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RESTRICTED ENTRY

He hollered at me from the outside
Of the home that was my heart,
With a music box on his shoulders
Humming the tune to the song
We played in his car,
The first time we went for a drive,
And it brought a smile to my lips
But it also pained me
Because I did not believe I was
Ready to let him through the
Pulmonary door just yet
And I cried as I yelled back telling
Him to go away, because I knew
It was only a matter of time till
I push him right back out, stripped
Of emotion and belonging,
So I started barring the door
With the cardiac bricks I found
And I built a barrier so strong I knew
It would be unbreakable.
I was satisfied with my own being,
I did not wish to risk
Allowing another boy through the
Front door. And while I was busy
fortifying my settlements,
nailing planks across the
Entrance, I did not see him
sneak in through the windows.