A Place For Us

Frames frozen from the past:

A flock of pigeons taking flight behind us, the sound of our smiles scattered in air.

You and me popping ground nuts in our mouths, counting the tosses and misses. We always counted wrong and started again.

Walking on the railway line with the loaded backpacks. Every time I stumbled, you held me, you never allowed me to fall.

The tea stall on the corner of my street, the ginger tea refresh after a hard days work, and sharing the moments of the day.

The bloom of flowers in the park, the bench where we sat hours together dreaming of a better future.

Present moment reminiscing:

We hardly talk. We just plan - which parties to go together and which not. You are always busy in your meetings and me in my page three parties. It is me or you. It is never us. Where did the space marked for us from our frozen memories gone? It is now a better future. But it is also a lonely future.

This emptiness is slowly killing me as I am gathering all our moments we spent together. The phone call rings and a friend calls for a sudden hangout. I escape from this loneliness to the company of strangers.

He will be home at night and too tired to listen, to speak. We will eat a quiet dinner during which he will be on his mobile or reading an office file. The night will be spent sleeping on the same bed together but not together. I will lean on his shoulder to listen to the rhythm of his breathing and the silence of an empty house.