Το Εκατοστό Ενενηκοστό Τέταρτο

Ultimately, we will lose each other 
to something. I would hope for grand 
circumstance -  death or disaster.
But it might not be that way at all. 
It might be that you walk out 
one morning after making love 
to buy cigarettes, and never return, 
or I fall in love with another man. 
It might be a slow drift into indifference.
Either way, we'll have to learn 
to bear the weight of the eventuality 
that we will lose each other to something.
So why not begin now, while your head 
rests like a perfect moon in my lap, 
and the dogs on the beach are howling?
Why not reach for the seam in this South Indian 
night and tear it, just a little, so the falling 
can begin? Because later, when we cross
each other on the streets, and are forced 
to look away, when we've thrown 
the disregarded pieces of our togetherness
into bedroom drawers and the smell
of our bodies is disappearing like the sweet
decay of lilies -  what will we call it,
when it's no longer love?



~Tishani Doshi, Love Poem