Sharmila Ray
PAST TENSE
I just can’t concentrate so I decided to write to you. It’s queer I can’t get you on the line and I am afraid to sms you. I don’t even know when you will read this. I feel in my bones a sharp ache but I can’t define it. Only I know it’s a kind of silence, creeping in upon me, a vast ocean which has lost its blue. I am looking at the books you have given me. I am looking how you have addressed me, my name written in that bold scrawl, in fact, I am looking at you. I desire you but the moment I finish typing my desire is already a memory.
I do not know
In what strange lands
You sometimes travel
Nor what whirlpools
Create patterns in you.
And did you think of me
Now that the air is sharp
The sky indigo
And the earth pale with frost
I am remembering you
Your pale hands writing
Your bright eyes shinning
The computer screen full with heavy words
Are you thinking of me
Are you ?