Guilt Poem by Saroj Padhi

Your deadening silence returns
like annual heat waves every Summer
to burn the ground with the same old fever
at my backyard where guilts from past so familiar
lie like dead leaves fallen from the tree of our tryst
with nothing but low noontime flutters to share
as there is no other option for a cheer
like bored housewives at the back door
discussing their chore
when their husbands turn greener under a receding sun
and flowers old spread new tales of love with new burn;
you appear these days like the blue moon
at the distant fringe of a smoke-ravished sky
where stars of love gaze at you with a big why
and mongrels and stray jackals howl in our familiar arena,
across the street, in the dead of the night
as our pillows sweat under the weight of heat
and nightmares cause our hearts to skip beat!