Childhood Romances —- Ramsha Ashraf

It must have been unusual for some
the way loneliness enchants back,
on a not-so-dark cozy winter night,
while the others sit around the fire
& recall the brief childhood romances
they have had with the balcony-drizzle,
radio melodies, garden-symmetries,
steaming-hot-cups of mum-made-tea,
warm hands of the old infatuations and,
those light, nonexistent moments of ecstasy
before one could fall down the well of sleep,
some sit alone in the corner, away from fire
and cuddle their demons and nightmares
while the others embrace the brevity of past,
some with heavy eyes carry the burden of life,
hungry for the immaculately detached desire,
look in the timeless image of mirror & sleep
with their eyes opened and fixed on the fire.