We Shall Travel Far and Wide

No, our pictures don’t look like we romp through life

With wine and laughter, stroking perfect smiles.

We escape somehow,

From clogged sinks stinking in spite

Creaky doors hastily shut,  

We escape somehow,

In long-planned shikara rides

Bargaining hard for a measly half-turn

In dull, dark waters of Dal.

We split a Fruit Cream into two

And spoon the last bit out

Into each other’s mouth.

We pant and wait

In rocks and mud

To clamber onto snow and fog.

We can be sledge-led

When we return

Pot-bellied and faux-furred

Purring in the trapped heat,

Not waiting for the sun.                                

But for now,

We shall travel

Far and wide

With wobbly suitcases

And measured allowances.

Dance in faith

Once you arched across

The horizon of blue and green

Your hair coming loose

Across your face and back.

Now, you smile, self-consciously

At the empty seats,

Flushing at the memory

Of dying claps and sea of faces

Holding their breath

At a tricky pirouette.

How you flew across the arc lights

Tracing beam to beam,

In endless possibilities,

And blundering haste.

Then you collapsed into a little ball

Of lace and mesh,

Of trapped screams and limp dreams.

Will you rise once more?

Hook your legs

Around my shoulder

And fly fearless

Into a focussed shard of light

Rushing past the humdrum

Of claps and gasps.

When you swim down this time,

No longer crashing

Into crutches and plates

No longer sinking

Into my coward graces.

When you swim down,

This time,

To a faithful heart

That you may not hear

In all the thundering praise.

So, if you pause,

This time,

Before you fly to the stars

I will have paused too,

Crumbling with you

Into countless broken pieces.