Touch

 

Today I am alone

turning my history

brief though

of remembered agony -

With parents touch

I felt reassured

ready to face the world

of untouchable nothings.

 

With my loves touch

I was in heaven

felt the unseen delights

I never knew I ever had.

 

Today my fingers

pound the keyboard

my children pushed me

dragged to slavish chores

handshakes in offices

cheery claps with practised

hands have numbed my senses.

 

Away from my parents

my love somewhere

in the stratosphere

machine like I wander

from here to there

to nowhere.

often in the balcony I sit

watching people, the noisy streets

horns, the moon bleeps

on them and also on me slantingly

my tactile sense is gone

but my heart is not numb

mind is not dumb.

I still wait for

his reviving touch.

Sabita Sahu