A Love Story Gone Awry Poem by Santosh Bakaya

An envelope arrives unannounced from oversees.
Where are the letters?
The words? I peer closer
Trying to read between the lines
Nonexistent.
I contort my body in different shapes
Squint my eyes, glance towards the empty skies
Where the sun sheepishly tries to hide
I blink, there is nothing, not even blotched ink.

Have the words flown away like winged birds?
In sun's non-gilded stride and cold demeanor
I sense a lingering wreckage
Of a broken heart.

A lone goat watches with interest slack
As I try reading between the non-existent lines
Of the letter.

The bell in the goat's neck chimes
And in the blank letter, I hear, [ah yes, I hear! ]
A gloriously vivid tale of a heart broken
Long years back.
I am left holding a fistful of splintered smithereens
And a love story gone awry in my teens.
A sigh escapes my lips
Unannounced.