I still see you in my mind's eyes,

Frolicking on my emerald lawn.

Pacing down the driveway,

My heart knows that you are long gone.

As the rumble and flashes at the horizon got nearer and louder,

The promise of the rain made me surer and happier.

Happy for us, but happier for those trees,

For whom I had done nothing which since a month were our saviour.

The audience has fallen silent,

In the Colosseum after cheering.

At the centre of the arena lies our past – our story,

which for hours had kept all of them consuming.

I pray thee for the strength to walk till the Lands End,

And the courage to leap without fearing what’s ahead and the height.

To glide through the small clouds of my own thoughts,

Crash into the sea and to dive deep into the depth of my feelings.

Those flawless and symmetric sides of mine,

With their exact angle and length all set to an equilibrium.

Present a beautiful picture of success, peace, and harmony,

To the outside world, hiding the truths within.

The placid water of a shrub-lined pond,

Reflecting the picture of a small cottage.

Which a friend would have let me live,

Away from people at the forest’s edge.

It took courage to open that blackbox,

which had not been opened since a decade.

It was time to face the objects in it,

As I believed that they were long dead.

There is some magic in the air,

Nights clement and mornings fair.

Hoodies and gilets are stowed,

Tees and cashmeres again remembered.

You insisted that that was not sin,

Wore that extra toe ring as the proof of your acceptance.

Our secret betrothal was enough to clear our guilt,

And accept it as our parallel life and not as a happenstance.