An Apology

She has made a life out of compromises.
If each wrinkle could tell its story,
You would know
What toil meant
And what meant turmoil.
How it hurt to
Mute her heart,
And put your faults on the pedestal,
Lace them with flowers, light and honey.
So you don’t look
Half as bad as you are,
To stop and smile in the hallway at familiar faces,
Complete aliens even,
And say, “Oh! He is just a little off-color.”
And say it pleadingly, too, so they forgive your arrogance.
Did you count the times she tossed in bed that night?
Because you made her lie to the people in the hallway.
And yet she woke up at your slightest switch and
Checked to see if you were breathing heavy.
Only if you realized that her belief is bigger
Than your behaviour.
Her heart bigger than your head.
If you thought, may be you would see,
The hand that she held out every morning,
Did not desire money to be pressed into it.
What if you had held it once?
If you had only but looked in those eyes,
You would know how they gazed at you
When you weren’t looking.

The Bird

It glided against the turquoise of the sky,
A tiny speck on the celestial threads.
It whistled along the fields of rye,
A pleasant white among the fiery reds.

It soaked the scorching, unmerciful Sun,
It bore the blows of the lashing winds.
And,on its ruffled feathers danced the droplets of rain,
It occasionally jaunted to the distant finds.

An enchanting beauty with unrivaled grace,
It sauntered the skies and bathed in dew.
It longed for a home on this Earth’s face,
And often spoke to God as it flew.

Lonely and homeless, it ever had been,
Till at the hands of vagarious Nature it fell.
And washed was all that it had seen,
And untold stories it yearned to tell.

Loss

Time has whisked you away from me,
Sent you to Death with its unseen oar.
And I kept thinking you were here to stay
But its giant tail lobbed you on a distant shore.

Its tongue licked into our lingering moments.
I hope you realize that I am stranded here now,
I have come to be pitied by random strangers.
And now I realize, I am stranded and how!

You left; My little world feels like a desert
With its infinite grains of sorrow.
You left, taking with you some of my light,
And I have already begun to wallow.

You had planned your life- big things and small-
From the first to the very last phase.
People made a fool of you when they did not
Teach you to count your days.

The other day, you were with me and I was too busy
To listen to what you had to say.
Now, you are not (and I can’t bring you back),
And your love kills me a little, every day.