Where I Left My Shadow

Often the wind blows strong, unknowingly,

Entering through the windows without knocking ever,

Turning the pages unturned for long, it rests there,

In the silence of my heart, still treasured as mine,

The love letters and more, those glory days of ours’,

Safe in the most clandestine place on earth,

The breeze the flirtiest, and the mightiest,

Seeks never permission, today it stirred again,

The sweetness of the lost time, sitting on my window,

Gazing at the blue sky, I am much bewildered,

The nights and day are just passing by,

Eyes are still waiting, more than I,

To see once and again, the face on the mirror,

Reflecting, where I stood once and you gazed,

We talked in silence thousand words of love,

Beckoning to what our hearts desired, you touched,

My soul, the essence of your love is still lingering,

On my whole, my soul, I imbibed into you,

Hollowness and void this place seems on surface,

And deep within, leaving was an easy way out,

Still for hours I look at the mirror to get a glance,

That known face or that stranger’s image perhaps,

I am here so caught and wrecked, sharing this space,

I desired to with you, only a male body now surrounds me,

My fight with time has shaped into a battle,

Two bodies draped into the garment of thorns,

Bruising, tearing cutting each other’s flesh,

A mute victim in the house of God, I ask oft,

Perhaps, the answers are much silent or my prayers,

She is not the woman anymore in the mirror,

I am, she had long gone along leaving me behind,

The doors are locked and jammed, I tried hard,

To escape this rape, from vicious web of life,

Envious me, I scourged her who left me and this

Abyss along with you, now I am just a body without soul,

Wandering often!  Places, where I left my shadow................................................

*Monalisa Joshi*