Regret Poem by Kakoli Mukherjee

I first heard her a rainy, dark night,
A dry cough followed by rasping breath,
I stopped at the tracks and strained my ears to hear,
But she went back to sleep alright.


Then I heard her every night at her nocturnal breaks,
Her cough worsened, the breathing got more laboured,
Sometimes she broke a glass to get water,
The loud shattering of glass greeting me in my tracks.

I often inched closer to her place,
Wondering if i should knock,
I could have got her a glass of water,
And offer a few words of solace.

I never quite made it though,
My mind remained at cross-roads,
One night the coughs stopped, the door was locked,
And new occupants moved in their load.

As I stopped at her door for the umpteenth time tonight,
I wished I had gone inside,
And saw the face to which the voice belonged,
The woman who stopped me on my way every night.