By: Chandra Shekhar Dubey

Memories sprout like cactus
that I planted in my pot
soft,spiky shoots tender as night
remind me of coarse fabrics of your cloth
that I dared to touch unmindful of pricks
and oozing droplets of blood on my tips.
Yellow bulbs of buds like furs around
your neck embroidered silky green cloak
whisper into my ears promise of past
to live like vanishing shine of the day
into a calm evening impatient
to slip into night’s embrace.