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Napalm


In the semi-vivid darkness of my dreams
That were Half-forgotten in the drunken haze
Of memory – we walked on streets littered with uncut
Sapphires from the abandoned mines of Kishtawar

Love, she told me as she kissed for the last time,
Is like Napalm, it sticks to your skin and burns
Peeling away at your existence, making you
Pray for death that will never come

And once the fire kisses you –
No amount of plastic surgery or raags
From magical rabbabs will ever heal the
Scars that run from your heart to your soul

We walked till the evening dissolved into stars
Saying goodbye for one last time, as the night
Unclasped itself from the moorings of romance
And I stood alone in the semi-vivid
darkness of my dreams

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