Dear Friends,
Please do not try to find any poetic form or fineness in this poem; because you may find none. It is not a poem in the true sense, but a candid expression of what went on in my heart while visiting my home town after a gap of so many years.
FEELINGS
Taking the cover of night
Like a thief
I sneaked into the town
And into its streets
Into the glare of its lights.
Familiar faces
Once to me my very own
Suddenly seemed so alien
Making me feel so forlorn.
Like the bird rendered homeless
Searching frantically for its lost nest,
I roamed the streets
In search of the address
Where I spent my best.
Hidden behind the darkness
I sought after the faces
Of my friends;
With no intention to meet or say 'hello'
Lest one might ask the reason of my long absence .
How could I've explained to them
I was that uprooted tree;
Hiding in me
A suppressed wail;
Pining to be free
And to return to my soil.
How I missed the waves, the sky,
The fragrance in the air
Of my birth place
To me once so dear
Suddenly seem so near
Yet so far.
I could've touched them
Could've held them in my hands
But I could not
Lest I could be caught.
With sobbing eyes
And a bleeding heart
I bade farewell
To my dear town
With a promise to return
This time not as a thief
But like a friend long lost
Into its welcoming breast.
