A scented well

on an old cup there rests a few fleeting fingerprints

as complex as your composure

the scenery passes and fastens itself

to the empty seat next to me at breakfast

untied shoelaces dragging

through all those alleys you rode down

rooftops with plants overgrown and overhead....

lights in the distance dotted

black buildings

pyre lights

blue chimes to the sky's protest and resistance

into it's twilight transformation

the last smokey wisps of fettered clouds

cowering inevitable collision

with the night

I regarded your smile as a well, deep and peaceful

timed out..

metered out all the joys through every passing season

in every windswept gaze

and all the sandalwood scents your hair held then..

scents of home

where you lay in the room at the back

waiting for the complexities of the the day to subside

to cross your arms and sail softly away

the first dreaming shore..

lit by a slow moving drift of paper lanterns

a visual chorus

there on the backlight

fairytale long dark expanse of dawns hovering outline

traced along the soft contours of your arched tempered back