When She Said No Poem by Arvind Ilamaran

a million lifetimes,
those moments of silence,
hanging between your question and her answer,
like a train rushing towards the suicide wish,
on comes the rising calamity yet hope comes abreast,
here sentencing precedes crime,
culprit becomes victim,
future self warned against it,
hope and vanity defied the voice of sanity,
in those fleeting moments,
A thousand swords would have been braved
the ends of her eyebrow my compass arms,
the rhythm of my heart her forehead crease,
No one's to blame and no one's to curse,
but life's own jibe couldn't be worse,
I took fine time to till my heart,
by bled and sweat did plough my soul,
her smile didn't shine and love didn't pour,
withered I stood,
weathered by pain,
love was lost and ache was found,
past her trace,
my journey's bound.