Through Bazaars Of Silk And Silver

 

Write your name and hide it.

I will.

Through bazaars of silk and silver

I am walking 

Carrying 

The syllables of your name 

I hide these five letters on my tongue 

Like a 

Five ruppee coin in my palm. 

This is all I am worth.

At every store shopkeepers call

Out to me and ask 

"How much are you worth?"

"What shall you take?"

"Whom do you love?"

I search for answers in the aisles and 

Within myself

I walk on 

And this 

Dream

Elong-

Ates

As I move deeper into the swirl of silk and silver 

With my fortune hidden like a secret in my heart

I begin to forget your name.

What does it rhyme with? How many beats?

I part my lips and hear no name

Have I hidden my own secret from myself?

The stores are lit by lightbulbs 

Yellow. Warm. Fluorescent. Stars

Star-death

It is becoming too dark to read the coinage in my fist

The lights whimper and they dim.

I reach to the pocket by my dil

And find a little script

To a play starring only you and me.

You, whose eyes are stars

Faint embers in the secret sky 

of memory. 

Find me in the dark 

And read your lines to me 

Tell me,

"How much am I worth?"

"What shall I take?"

"Whom do I love?"