CANDLESTICKS...

I kept waiting for you today; collecting the shattered pieces……….

Do you remember the silent music that had then flowed;
Swaying in the wind, dancing on its own tunes and forcing us along?
The way every note took its pace and then fell to soft cadences?
The way you then stepped inside? The way you broke into a song?

Our eyes met and then turned around, away from each other;
We often played this silly game of masquerades, with a hidden smile.
Pretending indifference we hid all the emotions within…………….
The music grew, and so did the depth in your voice, then in a sudden while……….

You walked over to me looking straight into my eyes,
And nearer you came louder was my heartbeat, but in perfect rhyme.
The corner in the room seemed a whole world to me now
I could only see your eyes then, lost in space and time.

You slowly uttered my name, gently raised my hand
And placed upon them wrapped thoughts of yours
Which I opened to see deep blue, urchin candlesticks.
I knew they meant something, but you looked unsure.

You were so like them; livid, deep, immensely silent.
It’s not that I was waiting; I just knew how to read your eyes.
I always could look through and know how you felt.
It’s not that I didn’t feel the same; I just didn’t let it arise…….

And I know now I was wrong…………….

And again we sat in the same room, though darker.
The candlesticks placed in the same corner even to that day.
A sullen silence hovered around carried in a hollow wind
Which swayed still…….. but no music was on play.

You looked at me and asked-“You don’t believe in it. Am I right?”
“I would like to…………. But I can’t somehow.”
I couldn’t read your eyes then as you never raised them.
So I kept on waiting, the same wind blew harder now.

And then it rushed to that desolated corner,
I saw the candles still lighted, but fighting with the noxious wind
The only bright part too was now condemned………………
There had always been darkness but now contrition too had crept behind.

I could feel myself burn, every time the flames flickered.
The struggle piercing deep within me, I cried.
Trying to pray to the wind to stop, leave us alone……..
But in the game of indifference I lost as the flames died.
A tiny glow at its tip and a white whiff of smoke……..
Rest everything was black……….lost to that dark night.
Everything seemed so tore apart that when you opened the blinds
I could see your face but illuminated in shredded light.

And in those feeble shreds I tried to look at you
But could not; maybe I was too afraid to read you now.
Or maybe we were still at our game of masquerades, I wish….
But the silence, joys, lividity all seemed but a broken vow.

My hands were in yours still, but we had lost the grip
The fingers held loosely I kept watching them slowly entangle.
You turned left and walked ahead; I couldn’t see you leave
So I turned around, rushed, a smash; and the candlesticks fell………….

But I am waiting for you even now; collecting the shattered pieces…………