The café

Today, we talked at length.

Sharing a hot cuppa of special chai

At Giriraj, Baner.

We talked about her new job

Her future in Mumbai.

How all her friends were happy

About her shifting to Mumbai.

Just four days more.

She will be gone then.

Good for me.

I guess, I am dying in the love that consumes.

I listened (am a much better listener now)

And she went on; me immersed in her.

How I loved this woman…

Boy, I knew I loved her.

If I had ever loved a woman…, I knew I loved her.

She knew it too.

I could sense sadness in her voice

I had never sensed in her before.

I knew I was going to let go. Again.

Like I had let go before,

Like I had let go of Shaheen and Soma.

I feel my love every night and day.

It always makes me smile.

This way, they last forever.

Immortalized in my verses I pen.

So much so that nostalgia will flow,

If I cut my veins.

Everyday I look back.

To every moment; now and here.

To how they all connect, weave, into a pattern

Only I can unfold, feel.

I love every moment I shared with her:

That special chai, the pain,

The hope, the cry,

Those scary, moonlit walks back home.

But most of all, I love reminiscing:

The dinners at her place.

Love, I still remember

You lying on the bed

Waiting for my touch.

And, touch I did.

For, who could resist such a sleeping beauty?

My soft breath on your neck, then, down to your fingers, and back up to your lips

While my fingers softly caressed your back.

And you moaned.

I close my eyes and I can still feel it:

Your closed eyes; your soft breath on my lips.

The day we almost kissed.

Do I regret not kissing you?

No, I don’t.

Because I know, we will.

Some day, when we will walk hand-in-hand

Towards the rainbow

We both dream of – the café.

When we will make coffee and love in our café.

When we leave a legacy behind…