Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










My Love’s Letters

May the rain not soak my love’s letters
May my love be a shield
May my love be silk
May my love’s new wings shield my love’s letters,

May the sun be softer
May the clouds be lighter
May it rain less this year
May the eaves drip less
And the waters spare my love’s letters.

Let the river swell, let jute soak
Let my love’s father and my love’s brothers
Play ludo and snakes in the shade
Let man and woman and woman and child not huddle
Under a rain that could wet my love’s letters

Let the river swell, let jute soak
Let sugarcane grow thick
Under the leaves, with my head on her heart
May I still feel the edges
Of my love’s letters.

May the letters still say that she was born
That she grew, that she married
That she lives, that she is.
May they not come undone on her lips
Crinkle under her fingernails
Get lost in her hair.
May not her breath set them on fire.

May not the mist find them
May not a landslide take them
May not the river carry away
My love’s letters.
 
 
 
← Shalim M. Hussain