Separation Poem by Sasanka Sekhar Panda

Before the conversation was over
and before we realized the intimacy
everything dispersed
and perhaps my gods kept quit
and silence was hanging like
devil'spin from the air.

The only horror to me is
my own black heart
from where poison spreads
to all veins and arteries
there is no ladder
to heaven
beyond the human reach
I fly with my memories.

The moving clouds of the blue sky
that touch us over our heads
like eternal bliss,
the screaming water of the blue seas
that sweeps our feet
like a hospitable Indian host,
and the wilderness
of the green mountains
that reminds us
of our conspicuous existence
all are like eyes we have lost
long ago
long long ago.