BEGINNINGS

know, exactly, what beginning looks like.
I would certainly recognise it at first glance,
Down the hallways of college campuses.
And, the office receptions.

Beginning, wore pinstriped formals.
Beginning wore a small neat bun.
Beginning loved concerts & followed every Wimbledon.

Our first exchange, was just courteous.
Integration would have to wait some time longer.

Beginning, barely knew anything about the languages.
Beginning reeked of, novice imagination.

I could sense his inhibition.
I could tell that she was curious.
And with the first paycheck,
I undoubtedly caught him grinning from ear to ear.

Beginning grew.
Changing and integrating, gingerly.
He now wore a subtle beard.
Her hair was streaked in golden and ombre.

Beginning sounded different now.
An assertive tone, a confident gesture.
New passions and multitude of ideas.
His expectations were almost in tandem with the real.
She now led the argument with immaculate precision.

But beginning still messed up.
Sometimes, he would grapple and falter through his work.
Sometimes, her emotions betrayed her best endeavours.

One day, beginning, disappeared.
Waltzing and gliding out of the door like a dewdrop on a periwinkle.
And the next time we meet, is many years after the farewell letter.
Behind smoked glasses, at a quaint cafe, in a different capital.

She now rarely catches the Wimbledon finals.
He mostly misses the weekday concerts.
She has new wrinkles and a frame I don’t recognise.
He has long outgrown the lopsided hair and nervous smile.
But over an impassioned recollection during dinner,
We still find old jokes having left mandatory courtesies far behind.

P.S: It is partly inspired by one of my favourite poems.