Touch Poem by Bankim Let

You live far away.

Way too far from me;
Maybe in an arable valley you live
Beyond this blazing city, smouldering mansard,
Squabbling brains, barking streets,
Skylines that elbow each other,
Church-temple-mosque chimes,
Those broken helmets,
Bloodshed and fleas, macabre firefights,
This bullet-torn pelt of peace,
Lonely masquerades,
Lust for wealth, women, and wins.



My ladies and my leaders present me
Some matchboxful of mosquitoes and ants
I'm no saint either; kill them with toothpicks


Unlike me, you aren't the slave of love, significance, and power;
You thus create everything out of nothing,
And I lose everything minus everything-
Even you.

But you are always there;
Wait for me in the sky-kissing mountain.

Like my granny grow sweet cherries in the valley;
Stow water under the bark; hide nectar in the pollen;
Drip love from the sunflowers in chill moonlit nights.

I've burnt the rose garden to roast my chicken

Away, away I go from you, and doze on my sandalwood settee.

You still caress my unkempt hair over and again;
My heart melts over my cheeks under the flash flood of stars;
Then a flight of cherubs peck my past night's dew on the glade.