By: Kousik Adhikari

If you ask me again
I shall not be able to answer your queries
why the night ceases on earth and million stars
hung on the bosom of night and sounding like
million bells jingling from cows’ neck.

yonder the earth’s grey people
meditating on their Sunday walk in brisk lanes
that don’t know how to mourn and see newborn
tortoises paddling from sand to sea
in their artless art that we forget to remember.

If you ask me again
shall I be able to answer why I looked at you
when the night ceases on earth and you walked on the moon
in the leaves drenched street unwilling to go
and our stories of silences that I remember to forget.