PARTING

Good times last not for ever, not even for long

Smile fades away, love separated, life snapped

Rose bud blossoms in the dawn, drops down by dusk

All good things end, they end too, too soon

‘Ere snow inflamed passions again, rains returned

I could surprise you once more with a B’day gift

We celebrate Xmas, New Year again, talk of past year

Too soon my research in your country came to an end

The Project was duly completed, thank you all!

We wept all night in tight embrace

Each time we made love we wept both

Knowing full well all this would end soon

They do anything to come to your dream land

Fake visa and passport, identity and marriage

Once entered, declare refugee, tell stories

All is fair to get into your country!

Then doctors and engineers become taxi drivers

Or wash dishes in restaurants, be night guards

Earn lots of money, still live in mental ghettos

Really belong nowhere, be like Trishanku¹

If I stayed, I would have to start all over

Perhaps to do odd jobs, meaner jobs

Perhaps my love is thought means of staying back

Or, in the struggle of life, it flies away

Better to be somebody in one’s own country

Than to be nobody in comfortable alien land

But in the heat and dust and noise and crowd

You would have withered and faded away

Yet for you I was ready to do all

What is love if you do not wager all

All my misgivings I kept to my heart

But she divined them, as I did hers

She freed me saying live your life

Come back when doubts are no more

I’ll always be there my love!

Then stay with me, or take me away

We made video films of our life together

Taped each other's voice and favorite songs

And made albums of our photos, forget-me-nots

I never saw them again, my eyes swelled and singed

We wrote letters to each other writing alternate words

Signed in blood and swore we're of each other for ever

It took her days to take her things back home

She wept each time, how bitterly wept she!

Insane desire, persistent demand, who had asked nothing

‘Give me a baby, give me your child!

Make me mother of your baby, it'll be our child

Leave some part of yourself for me to hold on to

I'll go away and live a solitary life

And will see you in the face of our child

I will seal my lips, my fate, my life

I beg you, Dear! grant me this parting gift'

How much I wanted to beg what she was asking

But I will not make her life hostage to love

We fought, wept, she even tried to trick me

I fulfilled not even this small desire of her!

We went to aborigine province in the deep north

She took me where no foreigner had ever set foot

They came running and shouting, drums and spears

Spoke strange language but took us as sacred guests

In the evening we danced around the bonfire

Primitive dances on primitive music of drums

Welcoming, entreating us to stay, not go away

Two long lost wandering spirits come back home

We danced our last dance together on snow!

Till mothers took away the drowsy children

The fires burnt out, food and drinks consumed

Bodies tired and sought each other to lean to

Those drums still haunt me, hammer on my head

‘Stay, stay, stay, go not, go not, go not'

My heart benumbs, a feeble beat bewails in crescendo

‘Go, go, go back, there is no life without her'

It was midnight but the sun was still shining

And then the sky dazzled us by the northern lights

Play of multi-color lights and fires in the sky

As if gods were showering their benediction on us

We snuggled in each other’s arms in our igloo

Loved each other in the quietest quiet around

Didn’t sleep a wink all night, as if by saving

Time on sleep we will overcome fleeting time!

We came back and then life became hectic

Ah! what life, it was a funeral procession

Packing, attending a few farewell parties

Though most of them I politely declined

We had made plans for future, dependant on me

Still she knew we would never meet again

How she wept when she returned the house key

And me when she gave me her tartan skirt!

How was our last night together, did we weep

Oh! we wept till tears dried in our hearts

How does one embrace when one knows

This, this is the last time love is in arms

How long, how many times, does one kiss

When one knows that each kiss is the last

We kissed so hard, we sucked out life

Now I live yours, you live mine!

From head to toe, toe to head

All over the body again and again

As if by kissing alone I could keep you

My whole body still burns kissed by you

How does one make love for the last time

A swift love is selfish, lingering, torture

How to fake pleasure when only pain is there

We made love in tears and sobs and cries

What has she done to deserve this fathomless sorrow

Is the punishment of loving a stranger this cruel

She gave me all, more than any girl ever gave

And me, I'm going away leaving her dead

What did I give her except sadness and sorrow

I tortured her with my ego and quirks of fancy

Even my love for her I hid from the world

A proud girl, she submitted to all for love

She was stronger of us, she is still

Amidst tears and cries never said ‘Don't go'

But now she is going from room to room

Wailing and sobbing and saying repeated byes

The nearer separation came she clung to me more

In her sorrow I forgot my own gnawing pain

If both fall prey to sorrow, lost count of things

We may do something desperate, utterly foolish

I carried her in my arms, drove back last time

As I had carried her that night of last fight

I kissed her adieu, she came out of the trance

And whispered on my lips ‘I'll come to airport'

At the airport were friends and well-wishers

And sure there was she a perfect colleague

All smiles with just enough of sadness

At the parting of a peer, friend and boss

She said formally, ‘Goodbye; We'll miss you'

But managed to whisper in my ear ‘I love you'

I kissed her on the cheeks, our last kiss

Oh! the sweetest, the bitterest of them all!

I went to tarmac she was alone away from others

Waving good-bye but saying, ‘Don't go; Come back'

I knew at that instant I was leaving my life behind

I'll come back dead to reclaim my love again

Krisn goes to meet Radha² in the woods of Gokul³

Finds her in the bower in the mango grove

All in tears and soaked in rain

A rose bud quivering under stifled sighs

'Ere she knew it he had said Good Bye

Now she beholds him going away, away, away

Through tears, through foliage, through woods

Far away through mist and rains, going away

Krisn stops before turning the last winding path

And going away from her life for ever

Glances back at her through rains and mist

Through woods, foliage and tears, from far, far away

Sliced sheet of stream dispersed by a slab of stone

Behind which on the emerald mossy mattress

Lonely nubile pink flower on a svelte stalk

Trembling in shower of tears waves Good Bye, Bye

Stop, go not, return, not turn away

Leave me not, me leave not, not leave me

Come back, it’s not too late, still come back

Come back to your love, your life, your wife!

[THE END! Of course, not!  But if I were an Internet businessman, I would have stopped here by saying something like this: If you want to read the entire poem upgrade your membership to Silver, or Gold, or Platinum by paying such and such amount.  I won't ask you to do that.  I would only request you to go to the Home page and become a free member of The Life Beautiful!  Done or already a member?  Go ahead and read the entire Parting.  Not yet ready to become a member?  Well, no problem, still go ahead and read the entire Parting.]