All That Belongs To Us

of monsoon, to light

dancing one last time

in the vocabulary 

of the sea,

to the salt breeze 

praying in the mangroves, 

the hum of the red-eyed 

sun, the despair of hornbill

flooding the forests,

to a language spun 

of twilight, the flame

dying at the foot of alstonia, 

to the whistle of reeds 

opening the spell of rain

they come home 

my love, one last time.

Smitha Sehgal is a poet and legal professional serving in a Govt of India CPSE in Delhi