Return To You Poem by Madhu Kailas

Oh! How bracing is it to return to you
after few days of venture to vend our ware.

Along unknown lanes of bohemia
like a thirsty wayfarer I wondered at open windows
for a drink of collective rapture.
To rest my soul.

Last night, when yonder the perfect horizon-arch
held in embrace a bejewelled Kolkata,
it was you beckoning to return to you.

Oh! How bracing is it to return to you
just as a parched, fractured earth rises to meet the wet sky.

The fruits of our labor, the best I could produce -
are but sea shells, roadside pebbles, crystal dew.
Pigeon coos, a coat button, a copper coin,
the occasional sigh, and a wild blue-flower.

Listen to the sea shells of myriad shades
they still whisper the ocean waves
lapping the sand shores they were picked from.

Their wanderings are not separated from sea essence.
'I, you and I'... 'I, you and I'... -
was always on my mind, had warped us in a twine.
Though I had ventured to vend our ware.

Oh! How bracing is it to return to you
like a spent pilgrim at the end of a journey seeking you.

And those pebbles are no touchstones either. But, each
with its brilliance showed me the path to travel by.
The lucent turquoise stone is all I have for you.

It shall make a lovely pendant tracing your neckline.
I heard crystal dew and blue-flower conspire
to tell the caterpillar - how it too shall be a butterfly.

Oh! How bracing is it to return to you
with fruits of our labor; few days of venture to vend our ware.

Not much to count, save the copper coin
he gave me from a few sprinkled in his upturned hat.
In front of Orsay or in New York subway, he chisels his art.

So, I bring you music packed in a rucksack.
And the occasional sigh? Pray, tread here softly,
as along the way I was ravaged by a ballerina's arc.