for amit

It’s raining outside
And from where we sit
feet entangled
our ears strain to reach
the music beating down
all earthly noises
till all u can listen to is
the sibilance of water
And somewhere between the
drops, imagine falling stars
which will cover the grass
tomorrow
with brittle frost
that will crack like glass
crystals under our naked feet
and we will remember
one night in mahabaleshwar
Sitting on warm hearth
when we stretched out hands
into the open night
another rain, silver crusted
had melted like snow
on our fire-blushed skin
Night long it had fallen
In the dark
wetting woods
filling earth with scents from heaven
At other times, we thought
water fragrances would rise from
deep within
and mingle like forest mist,
the breath of trees whose
roots had reached the
molten core of that rich earth
Rain dreams lie there,
You said
like ancient phantoms
which unearthed every wet season
to haunt the eyes
of all like us
who lay awake night long
maddened by the musk
that runs wild in the woods
hearing rain, dreaming stars
feeling fire, smelling earth