The Book (an old one - found anew)

He reveals himself like a book to me.

-         In a single tear shining at the corner of sparsely lidded eyes

Like a cold evening’s fallen star;

On a quiet lazy afternoon

Eagerly patient for the coming downpour.

-          In loud declarations by autocratic dictators

From fake pedestals; 

Crafted on the back of daily wage workers.

-         In the baritone voice of a beloved singer -

Enticing  monsoons towards him, bygone and foregone.

Like a book, he reveals himself to me.

I found him lying on an abandoned library shelf,

Which I used to cross on my daily walks,

But never dared enter.

Surprised pleasantly to find its doors open still

On a lazy Sunday afternoon.

On the last shelf

Of rare volumes

Bound in a nondescript cover

Lay he.

Dog-eared favourite pages

Scribbles in a hurried hand

All displayed in full glory

But hidden still below the dust

Left by the burrowing bookworms.

I stole him without the world knowing,

And stuck him deep within my tattered rucksack.

Below the toothbrush and the well-worn socks

And the long-used coffee mug.

He travels the world with me now

To give me repose between

Short sips of tea

Taken at roadside stalls;

And milestones stuck on soggy earth

Its roots being slowly eaten away by the insects in the grass;

When the tiny leaflets of the grass

Are raising their heads to the sun

On lazy afternoons of mirth.

He travels the world with me now

From Timbucktoo to Timligarh;

I burn the insect ridden pages

One by one

To give me warmth on cold nights.

So shall I burn him slow.

So when I walk the last step

Into the blue ocean,

Over the last grass-field

Nothing remains of him with me

Except his warmth in my veins.

He reveals himself like a book to me

This boy I’d met

On a quiet lazy afternoon

When time stood still

And waved us by.

I stole him without the world knowing.

Yet, he stands still

On that dusty library shelf

At the corner of a favourite street

Which the wanderers frequented on lazy afternoons

Which wanderers frequent no more.

Sep 08, 2008 (just the date on the page in which it was written, no exact date, but it is in 2008 sometime).