There are no places to get lost in anymore

Sailen Routray

Photographic art based on pastel chalks
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Dietmar Rabich

After getting drenched 
in the thin drizzle of your memories

there are no places to get lost in anymore.

In all the rooms,  

there are throngs of the ghosts of orchards.

On the streets

newly born desires 

are making a ruckus. 

The roofs are packed

with the carcasses of stars. 

What do I do?

Today I really want to get lost.

If I don't get lost 

it seems as if the Kuakhai 

would turn in its course 

and start flowing back,

vehicles would stop running

on the wrong side

on Bhubaneswar's streets, 

and 

you would get reminded of me.

Therefore, today, I have to get lost. 

But there are no places to get lost in anymore.

After I couldn't find you anymore

I too have tried hard to get lost.

I have been grating memories

on the evening's sharp edges

and pouring myself

into the thin hole of the night. 

I have been making myself up with the colours 

wrung from the skies of cities' dreams.

But all this has been without any use.

There is the desire to get lost,

so is the effort and the time.

But after you were lost,

there are no places to get lost in anymore.