Milk And Lightening (My First Crush On A Soccer Field)

By Shashwat Shukla

He floated elegantly among men

Charging, scheming, screaming men

Plotting and pushing and howling men

Who wanted what lay at his feet in the moment

The reason the whole bloody game is played

The coveted sphere, the possession of which makes one master of the 100 yard arena

But also makes one the undesirable prime for the opponent

Who charge.

And scheme, and scream, and plot, and push, and howl

To regain the precious

My first time witnessing the divine course through a human body

He glazed through the crowd like a young gazelle on his first trip to the open field

All at the same time I witnessed a predator rise too

In the corner of his eye he saw a halo forming

The halo of polyester and steel bars that’s meant to absorb the orb that lay at his feet

So far yet so near

He could sense it

He could feel it’s presence

And to that day I knew not of love in any form

Platonic or otherwise.

But oh those senses of his

Just clicked into place

One ...after another

And he, the predator and the master, gliding through a mob of excitable children

Like a god who in war surfaces only to bestow the gift of life to none

Stole the orb off each boy’s grasp

A foot to the left, a shove to the right

Nataraja danced his thunderous and firy dance

He flew

Lithe and quick

Like milk and lightening

Through the despondent mass

And with one final strike of raging iron that were his feet

As though in worship folded clean at the knee

He let his lightening enter the orb which rushed at a furious pace

Off his feet and into the ether

It seemed to float there for an eternity, still and aimless

Until a sudden sense of purpose filled its being and oh! It landed!

Rustling louder than a forest in a storm

Protesting as if held back in it’s frenzied path

And oh! I witnessed myself leave my body for the first time in my till then short life

And join him in celebration

Of a pointless yet so meaningful passage of emotions

Love

Hit me for the first time with all its warm and cold

I saw my face make way for the widest smile as we all held him in a collective embrace

I feel rueful for not fessing up that I meant mine just then

Not in body or carnal desire

But in the purest of joys I was feeling love

And that to this is day is my definition of it

Milk and lightening!

By Shashwat Shukla