Fragrant Sounds | Sreedhari Desai

Those Fragrant Sounds

you let me go; falling, I echo

did you ever love me? love me? love me?

you turned your face away from mine,

my eyes still cling to what was left behind,

trying to catch the light of the future you promised.

do you remember how we, the flowers, trembled?

i slipped into love with you, you caught me

now i’m falling

falling.

i can’t sleep but i still dream

of afternoons collapsed upon your bed

of the music that we made, divine.

those sounds were fragrant, yours and mine.

and now you’re gone, my love; i’ve lost all that matters,

i send my riches out on the wind,

without you, i am shattered--

everything is scattered.

my garden still blooms with gorgeous flowers,

watered by these tears, fed by your absence

i remember that first moment, crystal clear,

your touch, my skin,

gently

here and here;

now you fade into a stranger.

i feel your shape as a shadow,

shifting, fleeting,

fleeing.

where do our memories go to sink?

what ocean holds your hand in mine?

the games we played, those martinis we never drank?

i am married now and he is a stranger;

our passion never learned to swim,

not like those waves you and I rode,

our bodies crashing wild together.

i’m drowning now, in your arm’s prison.

my fate is written

and re-written.

his wedding band rests upon my finger,

but it is your name that parts my lips.

despite the bangles on my hands--

they look so bare.

the folds on the bedsheets still murmur your name.

your love, lost forever, burns me in its flames

the spark in my eyes has faded and passed

i live without you,

cold as ash.

darling, you are still mine, i’m yours forever.

i send all the love in my heart just to reach you.

desperate and thirsty, i long for your touch,

these saltwater tears fill the ocean between us.

empty of joy, i lift up my prayers,

won’t you come back to me now?

i’m lost here without you--

come show me the way

the way back

to love.