I've built this city.

I remember it before it had roads and houses.

I remember laying the foundations of many,

as if it were only yesterday.

We friends built our houses in a cluster

on plots adjacent to each other.

So, we could meet, talk, share sugar, share power-cut woes,

and spend the rest of our lives huddled together.

That corner tea stall.

Where that uncle, whose name I never bothered to know,

sneaked a smoke before sipping his first tea of the day.

We buy peace with loaded chambers

and call it a truce.

After levelling the muzzles at the place

where olive branches once grew.

In that secret nook of my heart,

where darkness reigned,

I hear your approaching footsteps,

as if you are coming to light a lamp.

My eyes avoid meeting yours now,

My mind goes berserk and boils over,

My core shrinks and soul cringes,

My body wants to run away,

My once caring hands rise involuntarily to choke you,

Every time you come nearby.

Standing at the doorway,
Where our dreams once kissed the sky,
I see the girl at the corner of the road, pause,
Is it you, or just a shadow passing by?

In the realm where footsteps falter and time dissolves,
Lies a chasm too vast for any voyage.
A silent ocean of unreachable dreams,
Where the horizon whispers promises forever out of reach.

You touched my soul—a gentle drop from a cloud above and high,
Settling softly on my palm, whispering secrets of the sky.
A fleeting caress, a moment suspended in time,
You slipped through my fingers, leaving behind memories and lies.