Maps for Lost Lovers

Home,

was a series

of street corners

and intersections,

ordered, marked,

and known

in familiar ways;

that moved

in comforting rhythms –

an easy to read map

of people and places.

Until I met you.

You gave me

street-lit mementos

of a stolen night;

changing what my landmarks meant –

late night ice-cream indulgences,

tea-time musing by the beach,

dosa breakfast at the corner café –

as we exchanged stories

on tree-lined avenues;

and a lifetime of my memories

mingled with a lifetime of yours.

And I was left

with nothing

but a what-if?,

pregnant

with the past,

the present,

and the heavy weight

of possibility.

You took the contours

of my city,

and redrew them

using your own legend,

leaving me lost in a city

that was once,

familiar to me.