Timeless and Other Poems

By Sahana Ray

Timeless

There's a peace in knowing  
I may not be yours tomorrow.  
Today,  
I can drink from the depths of your eyes,  
I can catch the words falling from your lips,  
catch your breath,  
as much as I wish to,  
and complete your thoughts.  
Tonight,  
I can caress your gentle cheeks,  
and clasp your hands and bid you hush,  
and kiss your temple till you close your eyes.  
There's a bliss in knowing that  
tonight, we can dream.  
Tonight, we can love each other  
as much as we can bear.
The moon will fly into our hands
to be our clock,
and die at the sight of this one being:
the lap of this timeless night!

The Stage

The stage lights up- 
In this age-old ritual, 
A choreographed silence, 
Beloved soliloquy, 
Your voice, a perfumed slumber, 
Pirouetting smoke 
Speak in ethereal whispers. 
The curtain falls, and 
Your eyes, like two flitting butterflies, 
Reach for a drape. 
Coffins whimper in our dreams, 
We prune the roses, 
But the child frees the raging fire 
And rubs her arms against the 
Broken mirrors. 
Alas, 
The horror!

The Librarian’s Top Shelf

Growing out of the bottom shelves
Was never easy in school.
The top was for the bigger girls
Who knew what the world was like:
Scars and all.
I dropped by,
Once, Twice, Nine times-
Nine times, her wrinkled scorn defended it.
Tenth day: she was holding a top-shelf book;
She read it to me.
I came back the next day,
For the broken marriage, the drug dealer,
The sold girls, dead cities, Holocaust.
The following year, she opened it for me.
Big girl.

Paper Rose for the Dead Girl

She made her aunt a white paper rose
the day of her funeral.
The kids played on the rooftop,
the bigger one trying on a sombre face;
The adults downstairs,
clad in white clothes,
sunk the dead girl’s framed smile
in a mountain of white flowers-
frail ones, lighting up the room like her:
broken, silent, strongest of hearts-
they would go to waste.
The cheerful girl of five
hopped behind the priest’s back,
clutched the paper rose 
In her hands,
she’d give it once the crowd had left-
said it won’t go to waste.
Love doesn’t.

Anti-Love

(Black) Mama fights with (black) Papa
Over rotten fruits, 
laundry, 
lives.
Charred soul food, and she talks of white men
And how she knows I’ll never marry one.
Papa shakes his head.
How’s college?

Your parents left you long ago, one at a time.
You say you cut your veins till you passed out.
And now, they’re back,
To save you, son, she’s changed you for the worse.
 
I say we run off, you and me:
two o’clock cab, edge of State, board a plane,
we got some money, too.

But the reins.

I say you leave:
Run before Mama sees you; meet you in ten years.

You say you’ll find me, love.
Look at your eyes shine!

So, you leave. Proud footsteps, dark silhouette,
Mahaba, you have it, too. 
And now, till you return, I can hate those who 
tore us apart, and know you will hate them, too.

Sahana Ray, 21, has been reading and writing poems since her childhood days. Growing up, she wrote for her school magazines and competitions. She has worked as a content writer. Her poems have appeared in the Literary Yard and YourQuote.