Amita Sanghavi: Neural Whispers

The neural whispers of long lost sounds,
Your smiles and frowns,
Wander through my smoggy mind,
An aimless leaf,
Breeze-carried,  tossed up and down,
Dry, ochre-browned.

Neural sighs:
My mind’s  lows and highs,
My memories have broken free-
as shrivelled leaves that abandon a tree,
Here I continue to stay, my once lush leaves 
Now astray,
Whirl-wind stirred, across an expanse of yester years.
You, a mere visitor,
Your choked tears, 
Your throat you clear,
You: the known stranger,
Caring and kind 
Towards me,
And my mind sans sound.

My bough neither homes,
A  howl of the wise owl,
Nor is it an Easter green.
My eyes sans your dream.
Of me,
How can you be fond?

Am I the pond,
Water-empty,
With just dry creases?
Broken, shattered lie
The ‘together forever’ promises,
Me, a neural wreck,
How I stare at you,
Know not who the heck,
Yet to me you are kind,
Though daily to you,
I so unknowingly,
Life’s betrayals remind.

No you don’t scream,
You know how much sugar to add to my tea, 
    And how much cream.

The neural noise
Of your long lost voice,
Ears struggle to hear,
Through the thick fog: 
Me, the leafless log,
Or
A quack-less pond?
Just a piece of log, 
Or a pond in fog,
Not a new-born leaf, 
No showers of relief,
Aware-less yet I am-
Priceless Oxygen inhaling.

I un-remember you,
You the unrecognized duck,
You the leaf dry,
My memories, 
Of you and me,
Unbridled, untethered, unstuck, free.

No croak, no quack,
No bows, no vows,
Neural utterings, meaningless strings,
Neither flavors, nor favors,
Alzheimer’s along with it brings.

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_{Amita Sanghavi (M.A., TESOL, (UK), MPhil, MA Eng Lit, B.Ed. Mumbai, India.) She’s the World Poetry Canada Ambassador to Oman. She’s the Representative to Oman as pronounced by ‘TheDylan Thomas Art Movement’, ‘Immages & Poesia, Italy. She teaches English at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat. Amita has won the International Poetry Contest, Savona Italy (2021). A set of12 poems is taught at BA & MA courses at the AKAKI TSERETELI STATE UNIVERSITY, Georgia.}