For you!

And I cringed
As I watched you go,
All this time with you,
And I still want some more

I held your hand for hours
But it was just not enough,
I miss your endless talk,
The childlike laugh.

I just can't seem to wait,
For the day when you will be mine.
Why does our love have to hide from the world
Is loving someone with all your heart a crime…

The time with you passed by in a blur,
Yet the time since then moves at a snail's pace.
I know we will meet again and soon.
And yet I miss the look on your face.

The look when I call you funny names,
Because I want to hide how enamoured am I.
The look when I tease you on your grammar,
Because if I don't I'd just stare into your eyes.

You asked me why don't I write anymore,
I do; it just can't do justice to how I feel,
Nothing will till I one day hold your hands,
Look into your eyes and before you kneel.

I think I know the answer, I think I always knew.
And yet with fear I hazard a guess,
That you too feel the same about me as I do,
And on bent knees I will hear a 'yes'.

But till that day comes I have sweet memories,
Of a crimson sky and a sunset kissed sea.
A day when we became more than friends,
A day of love, of happiness, even ecstasy.

Goodnight 'honey', sleep peacefully.
For all that you've given me, sweet dreams are due.
The world stands witness to a truth that you know,
Goodnight dear, I have and always will love you.

Did you keep quiet?

One day years later, the next generation will ask us.

Were you there when there was blood spilled on the tracks?

Did you keep quiet while poor people were dying?

While men walked hundreds of kilometres with kids on their backs?

What did you do, when the great pandemic struck?

What difference did you in life make?

Did you stand up and demand for justice?

Or did you write it off as a mistake?

Did you see poor migrants paying for tickets,

While the rich people flew for free?

Did you watch the mockery made of democracy?

Were you there when justice ceased to be?

Wash our hands with the strongest sanitizer we may,

But the blood will never ever wash away.

What happened to those people walking on the tracks.

Was one of India’s darkest days.

When a child collapses from walking exhausted,

He is after all collateral damage, a small price to pay.

They were anyway clogging up our streets,

They serve no purpose in our cities, jobless as they are today.

We forget the man who stepped into our gutters,

Cleaned our shit so that we may breathe clean air.

We forget the people who built our high rises by hand.

The woman who provided our children daily care.

This is a temporarily blip, solved by switching channels,

After all, ‘make in India’ will heal all that happened today.

And worry not today if they have no food to eat,

Tomorrow they too can sip on some ‘turmeric latte’

-P R