Soliloquy

The fall has begun; the withering of the last leaves
Desiring the friendlier cages of love unmatched.
I walk past the doors of the monsoon closing in on
My debt-ridden past. I am invited in but politely
Decline the offer. No devil drawing the dotted line
Can change my mind nor can the upright tangles
Of Time know better. Bathukamma, Dussehra, Durga
Puja make their presence felt just as the first leaves
Begin to drop on the dust-lined pavements of Suchitra.
I am left oppugning my own sanity and rueing at the
Lost days of summer long gone. You tell me that I have
No obligation to honour the promises of pledges made
In a merrier time, when life was less intricate than it is
Now. If it was easy to put such pleasures into words-
Not when the wistaria has shed its last morals,
Nor the jasmine reminded me of life’s niceties,
Nor the chrysanthemum dulled this sensation-
Then it is easy to say that I, too, am waiting to fall.