Jigisha Rai

Never looking back

We pass each other without speaking

We look at each other- blindly                                                                            

Loneliness crying out of our eyes                                                                                  

But we keep on, silently.                                                                                              

Each one of us is carrying a load                                                                                  

Each one suffering, utterly slowed                                                                               

Each one is going down, down on this road.

See there, friends just passed an embrace                                                                                

We used to walk this way, do you still remember?                                                     

You used to look forward to my coming                                                                       

In the midst of spring blossom, here’s the sorrow of fall.                                                 

And the recognition that it’s all over.                                                                  

Today, between us came a wall.                                                                           

Now, never to return, life has all                                                                                       

But passed. That is fall.                                                                                 

No one to give a nod, no one to give a hug.                                                             

You and me, through this isolation we plod.                                                         

It's fall. It's all flawed.