My City*

My City *

You have been with me for ages,
Since I learnt to walk, almost,
You have walked with me,
Processions of people whence first gathered
Near that towering Ochterlony,
(Standing still, like a picture three dimensional,
Since eighteen twenty eight),

You had given me first call to my love,
My first beard grew and got trimmed,
At a barber shop, at that street, near Lindsay,
You were there when I took to words to be left unsaid,

You were there with full fledged form,
At football scores and mounted police hunts,
At cricketing calendar you were there too,
Catching live how the World Cup went away,
Away from us, a toss to lose,

At the garden of Eden you gave me rest
To sit at your green, your fragrant air
How I sipped heartful, blessed,
You have been there when
I thought of Youth
Going to that theatre ,
Watching A Friday night making moves
Down the pavement , music whence poured,

Then oneday at Esplanade,
When it started to rain sudden,
Held your hands moist,
Your face how then glistened kissed by the spray
Of water, first time after a sultry month of June,

Found You in my veins,
Writing oblique prose and rising poems,
Then another day came,
When saw you dressed like a bride,
Riding with me all through Chowringhee,
Hoofs of horses making curious noise,

Christmas eves you sent to me with blow pipes
And simmering numbers slipping from glass doors,
Air when carried scent of grilled fish, smoked,

Another day, early in the morn,
Pigeons when came outdoors
To hop under the canopy big
Of the terminus,
We went to you,
To catch a cab to go touring,
To the outskirts ,
Friends and family all singing,

You have been with me all through
From night till morning.

(*Note: the photograph attached of wall graffiti, is clicked by me, while whiling away somewhere near a theatre, at the city of Kolkata)