MOTH-EATEN

There was a geometric progression 
in movement of truth and dreams. 
Candles snuffed out in moon light, 
were dripping bloody tears. 
My lips tasted the salt, 
accepted the basket of wounds. 
A sacred gift, you still cannot read the eyes. 

Night lifts a crescent moon 
on slaughtered clouds. 
Diaspora of stars burn their love poems. 
I collect the pebbles to build a path. 
The arthritic branches will never know, 
how love was evaporated from the trees? 

Signatures were 
ahead of times, giving up, 
their names to childhood. 
We turned into dots. 
The sorrow started an enquiry into wilting of words. 
Life was to be read as a book, 
pages moth-eaten and yellow.

Satish Verma