Footsteps

Lavender sky
Before the gold
Then the deep impenetrable evenings
Warm glow from houses
Sends a shiver down my spine
I returned- to a dark house
Waiting for me
In the dark inkiness I waited
September came and left
I waited on Partaking shivering cold dinner
in my bed.

Time indifferent of me
ticked endlessly
Each morning I strike off a day
In the Manipuri- English calendar
Tattered during transit
The calendar showing thasi and purnima;
when not to travel north
I gazed at the calendar
Hoping to revive-
An acoustic memory
Of footsteps against wooden staircase
A soft thud and the sound ascending
Hesitating, a tense lingering silence
A footstep that stops to knock
Stops at my door.