Love Poem: In love of dark
Aniruddha Pathak Avatar
Written by: Aniruddha Pathak

In love of dark

For long was I in love of light,
Light being likened with knowledge,
And when I fell in love of dark,
It was no love of a first sight,
One, led by the glory of night
In its star-spangled image.
It took time to know of my love.

But I should have known this long back
When mother used to kohl my eyes…
Yet, a beginning was made when,
I hardly knew it then, 
And when she put a dark spot on forehead,
I should have realized,
I loved Lady of Dark more than of light.

Approaching soft feet from behind,
The friends in school would often block my eyes 
In the game of ‘guess who’…
Later, when a girl did the same,
I began to feel my love of dark,
And I often wondered
If love was feminine.

Long years later, came glaucoma
And my love of dark was confirmed,
It looked like falling in love
With the spouse after marriage,
But it was not.
Perhaps this ailment was god’s way 
To help me realize love of dark.

Maybe, in dark our inner eyes open 
And we begin to see the unseen.
Light creates what is visual noise,
Dark touches deeply like soft breeze,
When we begin to hear our inner voice
Like someone on a violin 
To give inner vision.  

Those hands of mother that used to kohl
My eyes, of friends, blocking my eyes,
Of that girl cooing in my ears, guess who, 
Were they of glaucoma,
Or just of love in dark, 
To guess being an empty lark,     
I may not if ever would know. 
_______________________   
Musings |03.12.2024| light, dark, love