Did I Tell You? Poem by Latha Prem Sakhya

Did I tell you?
The moment I saw you
My heart missing a beat
Sank to the pit of my being
Painting me blue and pink.

Did I tell you?
How my heart was whispering
Your name with every beat
How I yearned for your nearness
All the while pretending that you did not exist.

Did I tell you?
Even as I watched someone else
My inner eyes were on you
Capturing stills of your movements
To be encased in the album of my heart.

Did I tell you?
When you called my name
Ever so softly like the whisper
Of the falling leaves
My heart flew out to you.

Did I tell you?
I trapped it
And caged it securely
For no one to spy it
In my naked eye.

Did I tell you?
That I dare not look at you.
For you would glimpse the truth
I never wanted to share with any one
Not even with you.

Did I tell you?
That I smiled and smiled
While all the while my ego
Urged me to run away
So that I would save my self respect.

Yes, did I tell you?
While acting out my meagre role
I was running inside wildly
Searching for holes and nooks
To lick my bleeding heart.

Did I tell you?
It was to save the last
Vestige of womanly dignity
Before being stoned to death
By the eyes of self styled puritans.

Did I tell you?
That I loved you
But my love was doomed to death
Like a still born babe
In the womb.

No I couldn’t tell you
They are the primitive urges
Of the wild self residing in me
Trapped with in my conscious self
Leading a custom bound conventional life.

But let me tell you now
My love Phoenix like
Resurrecting in a friendship perennial-
Is watered by unconditional love,
And sustained by the Almighty sun.