You begin to feel …

...you are getting close to retire

when

the work you do
starts to feel like
just an empty chatter;

when

the steps in the hallway
heading for a meeting
don't bounce
but merely pitter-patter;

when

cash awards and accolades
from CEO’s aides
no longer flatter;

and definitely when

the week spent in Florida
begins to call, and
sings the siren song
the time you have left,
it matters.

Lighten the burden of the past

People departed

hang on in old emails
and say boo
at random moments.

When searching for John
a different in the ether
says - oh hi,
if it works for you
then let us go
for lunch tomorrow;
the Thai restaurant
a few blocks away
will work.

For a moment,
it feels strange
conversing with the dead
and learning
their eating preferences.

Lately, a similar story
has been repeating
a bit too often
for my living self.

Perhaps,
it is time to go through
the contact list
and purge dead names,
and clean up emails
and lighten the burden
of a lengthening past.

Intimacy is...

...breathing in the aroma

the folds of your arms,
tracing the blue highways
that crisscross your breasts,
tasting the nectar
that flows between your legs,
and when feeling tired,
wishing for your shadows
for its loving embrace.

Is what you write poetry, she asked?

In the aftermath of making love

while lazing on the bed
you mumbled
is what you write poetry
or ramblings
of a drifting heart,
lost in a shoreless sea?

You don’t even know,
she said,
William Blake,
and you can’t discern
chicken drummies
from a juicy steak.

You are generally happy
but then say
your thoughts
always ache.

Well, guess what,
I have not called you
since that night;
days are little lonely,
but hey,
I feel all right.