Summer Afternoon

I step out into the pre-dawn cold,

In an ill fitting jacket that tries in vain to keep the cold at bay,

As I set out in search of

An end to the longest winter I have ever known.

Outside the streets are empty,

The orange street lights in perpetual battle

With the fog that clings to the early hours,

As I walk past warmly-lit houses

In search of a summer afternoon.

For long have I tarried in the winter dark,

That nor blanket nor fire can unfreeze my tears,

Nought can free them and let the emotion out

But my summer afternoon.

And through the cold I make my way

From an empty street to a thronging platform,

And there I wait for the train that carries her --

My summer afternoon.

The train pulls in and out she steps,

All clad in summery blue ,

And I'm free again as I bask in the green-gold light

Of my summer afternoon.

But now summer is at an end again,

As into another bitter winter I prepare to fly.

And ever shall I tarry there,

Until I rest my head again

In the golden lap of my summer afternoon.

-- Abhishek Takle

The Nocturnal Song

I step out in the dark,

The sky is black

No stars to be seen tonight.

I take the path

We used to walk,

But no flowers crown me tonight.

The air is still,

No soft breeze carries to me

The fragrance of the night.

All is quiet,

The trees don't sing

Their wooden songs tonight.

The night is dead,

The lights are off

Dried flowers litter the ground and bare, hollow trees,

Tower grotesquely over me.

Until I hear the crunch of your feet,

See you walking on a carpet of dead leaves.

Until you come and walk with me

And restore the twinkle to the night,

Until you come and walk with me

And restore that nocturnal song to my eternal night, tonight.

-- Abhishek Takle