One step closer

Write a song and teach me

how not to be

afraid of isolation

that creeps in when I tumble on

empty grey sidewalks,

or that settles down

like dust

on faded ink of half-filled notebooks.

Teach me how to befriend,

how to make it a part of the skin,

the solitude

of disoriented moments

that exists deeper

than the slow rush of blood

amidst weary veins and black charred bones.

Write me a song.

Make those moments, the life which was

always ours,

an interesting piece of play..

a little more perpetual than the

the lies, the cries,

the people, the puppets, the hatred, the agony,

the miserable nights, the forced smiles,

the only me and the only you.

_________

Paused at Howra bridge, Kolkata