Love

a poem by Shilpa Shinde

Love,
What is it, a four-letter word?
****
That’s what it should be,
Or at least that’s what it ends to be

What is love?
It’s a golden rope,
Leading you to the ditches
To the darkest clutches of despair
You never knew existed
It’s a syndrome, a phobia as someone rightly put it
Which drives even the
Most sensible person insane! in a useless rag
It is a pain
A goddamn ****ing pain
Which starts up slowly, in some unknown corner
And then becomes worse than slicing your brains
It slices thru your heart,
Just one clean sweep
And you are done; for a lifetime
It’s a termite; a deadly vicious termite
Punctures deep, inside you,
Eating away your delicious soft brains raw!
Manifesting deep empty tunnels
Not leaving even air to breathe into…
Vacuum is all there is left behind
You look inside yourself
And stare at the darkness, of the hollow space
You search into the nothingness
And find it gone
Your soul!!
Your only self-claimed property
You look around
And then spot it in his hands
He was holding it now, carefully
Within the confines of his closed palms
He is tossing it now in the air,
Playing with it entertaining himself…
Juggling it around with a new one.
And finally dropping it; for the shiny new one…

There I see it now
Fallen into the slimy sticky mud
Trying to rise
Struggling to get out of the slime
Cursing the mess around
I can see it now
Tired, weak and dejected
It’s looking back at me; hopeless look
Accusing look
Why did you let this happen to me?

I want so much to console it
But how can I?
It’s my own heart after all
And it is lying shattered there,
Down in the ditches
Sinking in the slimy mud
Nobody’s to be blamed!
Only the heart and the brain
But there is nothing left of the two now
The heart is sliced clean
And the brain is being digested
In the termites juicy grinds.

So.
Next time you see a golden rope
Don’t get tempted
Don’t go for it
Patiently climb the steps…
To happiness…
Believe me…
It will be worth the sweat!