Kihim

 

Not Alibaug, you had asked

Let’s head farther north

So we headed to the solitude

That was Kihim –

Very different, a receding sea

But a sheen of salty loneliness

Coating the eye of the beach

And hardly a soul

 

Who wanted the caress of sea

On barefoot walks

When there were thrashing waves

And golden sands of Alibaug?

Kihim was the quitter sibling

Reticent, downplayed

The one who never regaled

Relatives wanting to be impressed

 

But we were old, weren’t we?

You had ensured our Autumns

Came early in Spring

And so, we had no time for

Horse drawn carriages,

Or judging kinsmen

We were free to choose aloneness

Quietude, silence

 

Unperturbed even by

The thrash of seas on sand

Just golden sunset silence

Watching the oranges

Melt into the shimmering

Wetness of the teary beach

Little realising, -

This was the farthest north we’d ever go

 

 

We have transcended the seasons now

Would you still choose Kihim today?

Would you still touch the intertides?

Perhaps we both would -

Perhaps we have returned, holding hands

A binary star, unknowingly

Collapsing into a supernova’s flare

The universe watching from Alibaug faraway…