tonight
the sepia memories
old hurts
like cobwebs on patchy walls
a tangled web of grey,
a tangled web of grey,
the rigid verses
of an unwritten elegy- picture of my mother
smiling wistfully at the camera
someone had clicked it years ago
looking deep into her big black eyes...
a brocade scarf on the bureau
with tea stains on its green tassles
a muddy hue
of remorse-
an empty bottle of perfume
the fragile whiffs of her fragrancestill trapped inside the crystal walls
a moth-eaten volume of Burns' poetry
the serrated petals of a yellow rose
a leaf still trembling on the brittle stem-
fluffs of cotton, dead feathers, dusty squiggles on the floor
the rickety wooden table
doodles on the scratchy surface
"love...forever...forever "
on a three legged chair
a blue cushion, embroidered
with a sprig of musty wisteria-
like weeping willows
my father's old coat
a golden pen
tucked inside the breast pocketa picture postcard from Venice
damp...
crushed by restless fingers
the smeared red ink
like diluted blood
"dear...my dear...my dear"
a muggy afternoon in a corner
dark as sin
a sad evening
congealed on the dirty ceiling
blobs of sunset on the window sill
the parting glory
the blinking tail lights
of a retreating car
the goodbye-
the night
when we had pressed our faces together
and wept silver tears
you and I, moon.
© Nazia Mallick