To Binoy Majumdar : An Open Letter

As I lay sleepless in my bed

As I walk along the burning streets of my city

As I stand before the mirror and burn myself as well

As I tremble in passion and pain – centuries old

Your strange flowers and chocolates creep into me

As I put my dreams in my paper-boats in the rain

As I roll my hopes in my cigarettes and smoke them away

As I fool around with my sorrows in deserted midnight streets

As I stand and stare helplessly at my faith getting bulldozed

Your poison drives me to madness and mirth

As I search for remnants of love in my own ashes

As I listen to my own sighs echoing in those stone corridors

As I stab my heart time and again and wait in vain

for some blood to flow out

As I look outside my window and think of the oceans that existed

and the rivers that flowed

I realize that the wheel didn’t return

The chariot, the victory and the poetry – eternal

Those were but the mirages that didn’t exist