Love In The Times Of Decay

By Shruti Mishra

I promised you

a memorable dinner

and no love poetry.

Only discussion and deliberations;

on events that matter,

of how half the country survives

in the dearth of water.

And on other days of shy happiness,

two three sentences of discreet exchange

When you openly talk about your fondness of me.

I promised,

I won't demand a birthday post

When I see people around me

giving birth to lifeless bones

Earth is dying, they say.

Oceans are full of plastic inside the stomach of whales

And polar bears are walking barefooted on roads.

These monuments that we stand before,

are crumbling with every stroke

of chalks that write a lover's name.

I guess I fell in love with you

In this age of decadence

When everything else is poisoned,

I have my heart for you.

How can I love you so much

When everything around me is in decay?

When everything that makes the existence of us is dying,

I am lost in the love of you

Bad timing, I can say.

I promise you a fancy dinner,

While the pavement dweller starves in pain.

But

No love poetries,

Till the time it rains.

By Shruti Mishra