I think of all the lives I do not know,

all the lives I will not touch.

Some woman down the highway road i saw wiping her tears with the tail of her saree, A child with chipped tooth and the widest grin i have ever seen,

An old man in his suit and head as smooth as a bald knee.

I think of my neighbour's aged mother I saw every three months but don't anymore,

of how yellow her teeth were.

It would take some time to spot her gold one for they all looked the same from a distance.

I sometimes have to sit down to remember all the strangers I knew from afar but I couldn't even recognize upclose for I'd only memorized their features from a distance.

I think about the woman in her

stiletto I saw the other day

who looked like she could run

the world but her fist were

clenched and the stress lines

drawn on her forehead worried

me anyway.

I prayed she would be fine and

only as I was falling asleep

three nights later did I

realize I had done it more for

me than for her.

I think of gold tainted windows I see from my rolled down moving ones when I'm travelling, of what goes on inside those little houses,

if the wife who only ever wears red has enough freedom to stroll aimlessly for an hour without her husband beating her senseless.

If the children know what happiness smells like what betrayal tastes like, Why only the latter sense of theirs has to be activated so often.

Do they ponder what life is all about?

Why their mother is crying all the time,

why they wish their father didn't pile those green bottles at their play corner all the time.

I hope they don't hide away to cry.

I wonder if there has ever been somebody else's share of happiness in my little fist.

I wonder if I will have the privilege or maybe the misfortune of a toothless mouth someday.

I wonder ifi will smile.

I wonder why, I wonder who with-s the most.

I wonder if I will remember my youth and the things I've wished to forget.

I wonder what the patches in my left palm are and why I haven't wished love on any flickering eyelash in a while.

Why I haven't spotted familiar emotions in a stranger's eyes.

I want to know what it feels like to be strangled with fear and Love, all at once and always, I think of what the sea might smell like,

what it must feel like.

I think of all the people that have drowned and all the times I havent

of all the lives I've seen a glimpse of but will never touch all the lives I've been a part of but am not anymore.

I think of all the lives I used to know,

all the love I have outgrown,

and I pray the next time love visits me,

it decides to stay a little bit longer.