Once there was a he –
a mowed inkpot
fingers were little holders
with broken G-nibs
destiny wrote him with.
I was his palimpsest.

He took me out on a cycle
Sang ‘charminars’
Puffed out – ‘Aankhon aankhon mein hum tum…’
and nuts in the basket jumped into
my little slit
wide open under my nose.
A boot crushing with rubber silence soled to it.
He showed me poetry – a dicrescent
lightning falling, mud – cracking
the celestial wall – the cardiogram
of a rainy day, just above the Govt.
Inter college. He told me painting – topless
nudes and nipped my complexes
before they budded – a part of the
game he called EXPERIMENT.
He got me Wattsman sheet
water colours crackers and
candles and books, too.

Then he married me to
and thus all to’s gradnally were
tossed away – the ‘to’
of togetherness, of towards