To an old best friend: A poem 

Those were the blossoms of our youth – 

the intricacies of intimacy, and 

the touch of fraternal love they bring 

I then thought we were wise, as wise 

as the skies; but now I know 

we are only arms-length wide 

Time blows away friendship onto 

different paths. This is how  

roads depart. Only tributaries confluence 

together into oceans. The zodiac  

is rigidly compartmentalised. We are 

only ourselves within. No salt of the sea 

can saline our veins. I often thought 

about youth’s times; and you like a cliff 

whose base touches another cliff 

Our earth and fire held us strong 

But there is time whose winds 

make fires die and earth look strange 

after aeons. How distance was not even 

within range of a phone call, or a message 

I have survived the shipwrecks  

of circumstance. What about you? 

When you got in touch with me 

after ages, I was a different person 

and indifferent. I didn’t want old horses 

May be, it was my own crosses