You
are gone, but your magic still
mesmerises
us; it continues to cast its spell
into
the depths of our beings;
Your
loving glance,
impish
smile — this demonic world now
Will
starve to get enchanted
in
your mystic circle;
Because
you inhabited a world that was
far
higher and intense
The
innocence of the heart and the
romance
of life were yours alone;
All
the beauty of the cosmos lies in
your
profound creations;
In
your ‘Macondo’, in a ‘century’ of solitude,
in
your maverick soul
Alternate
worlds lived together — beyond
the
boundaries of time-space
Continuum;
one that was sinful and
ravaged
and the other that was
Coloured
with soap bubbles.
Once
you are gone, the world realises
No
one else is there now to fire imagination
with
fantastical matchsticks;
This
utter complacency, this mediocrity,
this
shallow ideology,
This
filthy display of wealth, you have left,
audacity
has disappeared;
People
are back to their narrow,
shelved,
closed lives.
You
too have retreated into yet
another
miraculous space.
But
we want you back with your 'timid drowned people', your 'demented dragons'
And
'the scent of bitter almonds that
reminds
of unrequited love'
We
can't wait to hear fabulous 'wonder'
tales
of the east; we will wait and
Wait
eternally for a glimpse of you in this bad, broken world.
Meghna
Maiti
