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I'm mostly frustrated that I haven't had much to say recently, but Anu Kumar helps me today..

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City Conversations

Anu Kumar

I

Crowded coffee shops

The chaos of other conversations

I found you in places like these

Anonymous hideaway worlds

With rushed waiters, and the

Stained menu we knew by heart

Where every overheard voice

Told us life was interesting

Elsewhere

Your murmur low in my ears and I

Lost the words you said.

Crowded coffee shops still crop up

On every clogged street

In every new city I visit

I hear you now, your low murmur

Caught in moments of sudden silence.

Every city has these.

II

Hello city

And you say, You’re talking to cities now.

Only the one I miss

If I can’t walk on its streets no more

Look out of its windows, measure its rain

While a hello could go anywhere.

You sit coffee in hand, I almost tell you…

A city needs words, never for itself

You can’t miss a city like you do a friend

When words do not matter

And there’s your unchanging smile.

Then you ask, are you all right.

And our lives trapped by the very words

That give it meaning.

III

Losing a City

To a friend visiting a favourite city:

When you walk down roads I once did

Take some steps for me

Stamp your feet on asphalt

Let my footprints remain

Touch the walls a second more

From gaps in tall buildings

Hold the sky; count the stars

Till you can’t any more

The city will perhaps remember

Your way could work better than mine.

Let me think I’m only missing this city

That I haven’t lost it forever.

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