Moving On...

To Chennai with love....

A low cloud hung around your brow
When I came knocking at your door
You cried with joy, I thought, self assured,
Immaculate, untouched. In loss, untutored.
But you’ve shed too many tears since
And I, some hair, and some innocence.
Now, as I pack my bags, and fold up my youth
Your eyes cloud again. And I’m still to see the truth.

But my ingrate despair, taints the memory
And befouls the redolence of your jasmine and coffee,
The smiling sliver of silver lining your shore,
The bobbing boats, the breeze bringing them home,
The waves of melody washed in by the tide,
And cascades of silk whispering to anklets, twined
Around your feet, as you danced to an amorous padam -
For me, I presumed, in my fanciful delirium

But when I discovered the smallness of my part,
Among the millions swaying to your art,
How shallow and graceless my patronage proved!
When your frenzied rhythm left you dazed
And you reached out to me, where was I?
Shrinking away, afraid to look you in the eye.
Feeding hungry hope with gratuitous filth,
Heaping on your lungs, a slow, painful death.

You’ll survive my sins, as you must’ve weathered,
Countless follies, felonies, promises murdered.
But my aborted tryst longs for atonement,
And weaves another foolish dream of fulfillment.
So, I leave, with my heart a little empty -
Wretched burden. Hollow yet heavy!
Perhaps, my dear, I'll see you again. Regain,
Some virtuous day, my lost domain.