RUINS OF MY HEARTOPOLIS

By Mydhili R Varma

When they put the scalpel to my chest

And examine the detritus of lost continents

One organ after the other, removed and weighed

They would find themselves baffled

By the ruins of my Heartopolis

Amongst lost hopes and failed dreams

Debris of underwhelming existence

A glorious shrine dedicated to you unscathed

Built in sandal walls and gleaming gold fixtures of muscle memory

Standing tall on pillars of divine enchantment

Lamps still burning bright in your memories

A courtyard that had witnessed an epoch of togetherness

Still smelling of the jasmine flowers you tied on my hair

Under the maddening calm of the moonlight

Footfalls and giggles echoing

From behind doors jammed shut forever

If these walls could talk

They would spellbind them

With millions of tiny stories that stretch

All the way around the galaxy

But not everyone has ears for echoes

From another time drowning into oblivion

When they fail to identify and classify the specimen

They would bag it and preserve it in a world of glass

For scholars to figure out

Why the ruins of my Heartopolis

Still reverberates and pines for you

By Mydhili R Varma