Flight

I’ve lost my prayer
I’ve given up my love of instinct
I’ve renounced all
and flew like an eagle.

I preferred slender sandy walks,
lined by green groves of grapes;
I leant over the railing
when the moon’s patch showered on my building
shadows and lustre of strange age and land;
I followed with insidious airy steps
the lanes of my wonderful neighbours’ minds;
I sank in the smiling rills
of our children’s rosy countenances.

Now I turn away from these
like Adam and Eve
running away from their sky-kissed sex.

–SUBHAS CHANDRA SAHA