Chittaranjan Dash, Delhi, 18 December 2022
Let me tell you, that day, I went to the beach
As dusk hours lashed furiously at my heart.
I felt alone, I was alone, so to say, on my own.
People were there, everywhere, loud as gossip.
My shadow and surf did a tango to aloneness.
As autumn witnesses decadence like its soul
The tumult inside me rippled on sand and sea.
Then dark overwhelmed all of us like a tyrant
Surrendering to our fate we retreated as birds.
A crow was lonely too in search of an identity.
As I locked my eyes with it on a slender branch
Our silhouettes merged to a collective loneliness.
