Skip to main content

salt and pepper you


Among throngs of people
My eyes searched for you
I tried to spot your salt and pepper hair
And craned my neck to view

My heart was thumping against my ribs
I didn't know what to do
Had you already left ?
That couldn't be true
How could i not see you one last time
How could i not feel your heart beat against mine ?
Just one last time
I was ready to promise anything away
The Universe was treating this sacred moment
like child's play

Someone heard my prayer,
For you tapped my shoulder
and said my name
In that moment
I tried to memorise
The creases around your mouth
The ever present glint in your eye
How long can I hold onto it?
Maybe until next month
Or next year
Maybe my entire life
And then maybe some more.

Your familiar scent reached me
The aroma of that clothes softener
Meant so much
It meant more than you'll ever know
It meant more than I'll ever show
It meant you.

So for 10.65 SGD a bottle
I can capture you forever
And every Sunday you'll float
Into my house
Like a memory long forgotten
But always a scent anew.

I heard myself saying I'd loved you
And that I will for as long as I lived
It wasn't me who was speaking
It was the girl
Who gave her naked heart to you.

You held my waist and pulled me closer
And we kissed at a crowded airport
It reminded me of another time
Same airport,
Arrivals & not Departures though.
But a different me
And a very different you.

You pulled away & turned your back
and took two steps towards the gates
I wanted to call out
But two steps looked too far
Too far a bridge to cross
Too far for you to stop
Too far for me to call out,
And too far for you to turn around.

My voice seemed to have died a silent death
but your steps never faltered.
Again that familiar story of you walking away
And me never knowing what to say.

I followed your salt and pepper hair
Until it was lost in the crowd
Until it was too much to bear
So i and my heavy heart
Walked back into a life without worry
And almost without a care.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zindagi Migzara.

As I dimmed the lights of my room last night, Singapore's hot and humid air changed to a gush of strong cold wind. The curtains fluttered and made my ddlj cow bells ring. I turned and stared at them for a long time.  I readjusted the laptop on my bed and plonked myself against two big pillows. My eyes closed themselves. There was a silence that was neither deafening nor lonely. It was just what silence is meant to be.... silent. And my curtains moved again, moving the bells with them. The bells took me back to Shahrukh and his movies. I opened my eyes and looked at those bells for a long long time. My mom had picked them up from Switzerland for me. I thought of her and teared up. I wanted her now. I wanted her touch. It was 10pm at home in India and at this time, after dinner and closing the kitchen, my mother, takes a shower. She comes out of the bathroom, and brings with her a waft of her talcum powder and her body lotion. That fragrance can make you forget all your worries...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thanks, Dad

Do Nainaa Aur ek Kahani Thoda Sa Baadal Thoda Sa Paani Aur ek Kahani Choti Si Do Jheelon Mein Wo Behati Rehati Hai Koi Sune Ya Na Sune Kehti Rehti Hai Kuch Likh Ke Aur Kuch Zubani ~Gulzar ~~Masoom This one is devoted to my Father. You know, while growing up parents always say things to the kids and they often end their arguments with "We've grown up, crossed all the paths that you will be crossing, and we know what its like" And you often say to yourself, no way! That was a different time and these are different times, things are now different, the paths are different. And so you go on, do what you want to do. It's often happened to me. And it happened again, when I told my parents that I was dating someone. My Father wrote me an email and said a lot of things. He didnt shout, he didnt preach. But it had a nice "conversation over coffee" feel to it. And I love re-reading that email sometimes. The crux of what he said was, "I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Zindagi Migzara.

Har ghadi badal rahi hai roop zindagi Chhaaon hai kabhi kabhi hai dhoop zindagi ~~Javed Akhtar, Kal ho Na Ho This is a post I will HAVE to name after my blog, simply because no other phrase can capture the true meaning of what I will try my best to express in words in this one. It all started on the Third Floor balcony of Omega, Hyderabad. And the best part is the fact that we didn't even know that we had started something new. We went through months of dilemma and denial while deep down both of us just knew. As a very dear friend puts it we had the 'connection' , but we were yet to discover it. Days, Nights, and months went by, before we realized. In fact more than 'realization', we accepted that we meant a lot more to each other. Today when people ask me for a time,date and place and what, where, how, when. I am clueless. Because it was not love at first sight, it was even more beautiful than that. A friendship that both of us treasured to th...
6 comments
Read more