Of All the Faces You Have

By Yash Raj Shukla

It is all a dream,

Waking up next to you,

A dream amped up with effects,

From the sun that chose to shine,

The lilies that decided to bloom,

Or the air that stayed cold in this morning's warmth.

And at the center stage .... are- "You", next to me,

Eyes closed, messed up hair and a drooling mouth.

And there's those wrinkles beside your eyes, that you so brilliantly hide,

The scar in the corner,

That your curls cover....almost all the time.

You look like you are in a world of your own right now.

And I know that I have seen you before, known you here.

All I need is to take it all in and retain.

....but I fear even a slight movement of mine would scare you away, pull you out of this place of yours.

So a hint of a twitch or a movement on your face ....and I stop looking at you at once.

Then you open your eyes and smile.

Only this time when I look at you ....

You have changed!

Your face- different,

So much so that I doubt if I have ever seen you before, seen you complete and up close.

And that makes me shy away from looking at you now.

You feel familiar and not so much, all at the same time.

Are you the one I love? Perhaps you are.

You are a blurry vision to me now.

That often reflects myself off of it.

You were the face of my desires once, my emptiness. The face of my joy, often of my pride. You became the face of my mornings and of all the reasons for it. You were also the face of my hope in the past and of my strength now. But you are the face of my grief too........

As you are of my fear.

Fear of losing you in a crowd and not knowing the face to search for.

How would I ever describe you to the ones who would ask.

Of all the faces you have, I admit to remember none.

I see you and it's just me that I see.

There's just my love and me.

Have I really ever seen you before!?

And amidst all this when you pull me close,

Your face closer to me than it ever was,

I feel at peace after all, as I finally see you, my love... when you whisper to my heart-

"It is all a dream."

By Yash Raj Shukla