The suitcase is packed
and bags are full,
in your ultimate ecstasy.
Some of my things
are still left with you,
let me have that misery.
You see you ought to return,
what always belonged to me.
I’d lent them but you’d owned,
never knew one day you’d flee.
Take your umbrella
but return the rains
to which we danced our hearts.
Yes, you can have the winter’s rug.
First, give me that one last snug,
the one which dried my tears ever cried,
before they hit the dirt of dust.
The books are yours to keep.
Just give to me the tears you weep,
as you softly turn the pages of
the saddest story breaking up.
Snatch from me the dreams we saw.
But let me have the nights we were,
entwined as shadows in one silhouette
through what rushed like haste-eternity.
Picture frames on the floor are swung.
Return to me, my youth of the young.
All the years I spent on you,
trapped in mere photographs few.
Tell me how you counted money
when you spent it all on me,
buying gifts in needy frugality,
not of greedy luxury.
Return those priceless memories
which have no fortune to pay,
love letters I had written to you
when I had so much to say.
I let you go your sweet big way
but leave me rich as alone I lay,
flashes of past are all I have
and that is what I truly crave.
Dr. Priya Dolma Tamang
Illustration Nick Victor
Bio
Dr. Priya Dolma Tamang is a medical graduate from the north-east Indian state of Sikkim. With her tribal Nepali roots and deeply seated Buddhist beliefs, culture and mindfulness have both been active themes in her writing.
Her poetry has found home in international journals and magazines, like Urban Magazine (June and September 2019 issues), ReadMoreCo, Headline Poetry, with work forthcoming in Tales of Reverie by Paragon Press and Just Milieu Art Zine.
Her debut book, Ivory Gleam, was published by Leadstart Publishers, Mumbai, in 2018.
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