It’s a circumambulation - For you and I A perpetual hunt for each other, And one that knows no end.

One such hunt reproduces itself - Pricking, numbing the memory lane of my brain. Your claws shredding away the threads of flesh off my skeleton The agony, however, failing to dull My already dead soul. The pain being no sharper than one already lived through.

The insane sight of, A plethora of my dead relatives hauled up on the alien dockyard Seemed to moisten my already dry eyes.

They came in large numbers- Another pitiable Exodus To escape the jaws of Cruelty- Only to enter Death’s.

The faces gape at the chasm of hollow existence- And amongst all such faces, I see yours The putrid stink of Cruelty Refusing to decay Your sweet smell of musk.

Rummaging through the store box of memory, Some yellow and some tainted red, I stumble upon the undoctored vignettes - Of how you convincingly aced the game of hopscotch - Under the jasmine shaded bowers or the scorching sun. But Death now seems to have purloined your victory - Life rendered useless by someone else’s hate and indifference.

Collared and chained, And victims since birth - We must have known that the only certainty In our lives is Death, The ultimate refuge, And reception for a modicum of dignity. And while you have embraced it earlier than me - I shall still be a regular prey. For I have to unmoor myself thrice now - From

The hunt and the existence that weigh me down And our unborn dream’s craving for the milk of human kindness.