Two Red Kapoks Poem by Srimayee Ganguly

The wind heaved a sigh as heavy as mine,
Shoved me strong, swayed my way
Into the fallen inflamed fronds-
With a familiar stranger among them.

That marked the day I saw another self-
Who also loved to taint his pages in petals of wine;
He held his red kapok, in bold bloom near my ear;
A curl of my lips and I shook the pollens off my hair.

Unmoved in defiance, overruled by passion, oh!
But how they mistook two souls for one-
Just like you couldn't distinguish your red silk cotton
From the one pinned in my tome.

The seas made sure we had it our way
Waves of burgundy under an electric sky,
Perhaps they knew, only too well,
How breath may falter though souls unite.

The earth made you hers; maybe you were never mine;
Maybe the foams of our bottled love did us beguile...
Where kapoks red, unrivalled in pairs, may come undone,
I'll still not get over how they mistook two souls for one.