Sudipta Mishra, Puri, 5 October 2024
I met him again,
Twenty long years had passed away.
I have been waiting for this day,
Lazily, I overcome those languid moments,
Bruises and scratches reminded me of his long absence!
That scar, time and again, hurt me in many dreams!
Never knew that
meeting him would be so startling,
My eyes stuck at one point.
I had no desire except to stare at him,
I only counted every bit of the immeasurable seconds
of those passing hours!
A figment of my fancy spiralled up from nowhere.
Some stuff like ‘if’, ‘but’, ‘unlike’ and many more hammered me.
Two hours suddenly passed away,
But my eyes were intact at the same point.
My little girl jerked my ponytail,
“It’s time to say goodbye to guests.”
With the screams of ‘congratulations’ in the air,
I realised my present state.
Waves of memories stored in a secret store
Began to cascade like a never-ending brook.
While traversing the years
in the time machine,
I recollected my acceptance.
And then a bold rejection,
And then the shattering of hopes!
Unlike other spectators on that stage,
I unravelled the joker in me
in the circus of life!
Two hours passed,
Two decades of my life passed away…
I found myself still clinging to the fascinating bygone;
Life must go on.
With this, I hastily gathered the scrambled parts
for returning to the lonely chamber.
my heart was heavily laden with those thrilling moments of yesteryears!
Embracing the humdrum of this rotten life was the last choice
That years ago
I made in my conscious state.
