The Transfer

April 05, 2014 06:43 pm | Updated May 21, 2016 08:49 am IST

I knew that the day would come.

Tonight with immediate effect all the stars

Shall be transferred onto your hair.

All the lilies, lotuses and lilacs

That wish to surround you are

Granted special permission to do so;

So they shall shower you in their wet petals

Of outgoing sadness. The late rains that have

requested

On compassionate grounds to fall all over you

Shall touch you

With temperate coldness. An antique gramo

phone deck

Will play the 78 RPM

Of your laughter for the last time, to be archived

For posterity

Under the label ‘His Heart’s Voice’. Henceforth

Whoever looks and thinks he loves you

Shall remain deceived. In the mist of your

leaving,

There is still hope

That you’ll at long last,

Miss me. But for all matters of the heart

You’ll be deemed forever gone. Take the first

flight,

Report for admiration

In your new town,

Where they fold up love like blankets

And sit all night in the cold

While in the rain streets the children run

Far into the beach, among the night’s last lovers,

Selling leftover love

For candy floss and song.

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