I stand upon a windswept ridge in my village in Kavre,
listening to the murmur of wind.
Light moves across my skin
until I dissolve into the breathing hills.
The mist loosens.
Something draws me downward.
I follow
through thinning air and moss – covered stones
to the banyan tree,
its roots gripping earth like memory,
its branches bowed with years.
There, in its tangled arms,
a shawl trembles –
hers.
Tattered at the edges,
holding dusk—marigold and smoke—
it stirs,
and with it, her voice,
soft as evening, drifting along the wind that carries her here again.
I remember:
the rhythm of her laughter,
the hush between folk stories,
the way warmth gathered
wherever she sat.
The wind lifts the cloth.
It settles across my shoulder.
A quiet warmth lingers in its weave,
like hands just gone,
like time that will not close.
The ridge, the tree, the drifting mist –
all hold.
And in that stillness,
nothing is lost.
Bhuwan Thapaliya
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Bhuwan Thapaliya is a poet from Kathmandu, Nepal, who seamlessly blends his professional life as an economist with his passion for poetry. He has authored five poetry collections, including his most recent work, Slipping into Another World, published by Ukiyoto, and Safa Tempo: Poems New and Selected, published by Nirala Publications, New Delhi. Beyond his writing, he actively engages with the global literary community, having read his work and attended seminars in countries such as South Korea, India, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, and his native Nepal.
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