Departure

Departure

The train departs;
Kerchiefs wave, The salt in the eyes fights for a way.
The train departs;
Faces droop, but the lips smile big to salvage the day.

The train departs;
Yet quivering hands resist, refuse, to let go,
This wet warmth that binds the hearts,
Is begged to dry out, but the winds refuse to blow.

The train departs,
Thankless to the million moments of disguised agony,
Slithers along, its route it charts,
And condenses, coldly, into a warm drop of memories.

The train has left;
The sighs on the platform reduce to trash.
The train has left;
With dead finality, these ocular vials of resolve crash.

- Sandeep Khare.

(Translated and transmuted from Marathi
by Sopan A. Sharma.)