Now that you have cared

To sit before me and talk

A bit till we both go away to catch the train ,

What about asking you few basic things?

Yes yes I know,

Your train is due at 1300 hours

Mine too, following yours, ( as always in every little things, see, since we met)

At 1305 hours,

And now, it is 1250 hours,

So we got some ten minutes to talk,

( even if you do not talk , like that mistress of Robert Browning,

See, how can I resort to dramatic monologue too?)

Looking at you after some years

The first thing that I note duly

Is that your skin has turned pale,

You put on weight too,

( your breasts look heavier and more alluring , though I will never say that to you!)

Only your eyes

They are blue as ever,

Hey!

Have you got nothing to say?

Ten minutes will be gone soon!

Have you observed that I did not smoke?

I quit it dear!

With your going away

Cigarettes went away too,

Is not that amazing?

I kicked that bad habit,

Btw,

Had you been a bad habit too?

                                                                       ~ Moinak Dutta

                                                                           Kolkata, India