An evocative and poignant poem about love and its loss, by Gopal, exclusively for Different Truths.

And another day winds down, after the sun has sunk
into the river, words now become solidified wax.

The narrow roads are lightless. The trees bend
to one side, losing their songs in every leaf.

All things unborn of me, time thrust in like
a cracked seed in its strangeness, in its smell.

Those conversations that we learn from the birds
but for a few moments, fly away far and beyond.

Now I ask and something else you answer,
getting your hands now with bites and grimaces

Every vein of your faces grows silent, shielded
in the embrace, eyes sketch fine lines on the

steady palm, fingers scribble in an unknown
language, pointing those years of sparkle and delight.

Visual by Different Truths

Gopal Lahiri

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, and translator with 33 books, including eight edited volumes. Anthologised in over 150 journals and anthologies worldwide and translated into 18 languages across 17 countries, he has received the Setu Excellence Award, a Pushcart Prize nomination, a Best of the Net nomination, the First Jayanta Mahapatra National Award, and First Prize at the 43rd World Congress of Poets. His Selected Poems was published by Classix, New Delhi.