Letters
On rocks, palm leaves, leather, vellum, paper,
epistles penned with a chisel, quill, pen,
the beauty of words to express feelings
all human experience forged in many ways.
Blue crinkles of the Basildon Bond airmail pages of a letter
crossing the oceans, with words inscribed with love.
the delectable thud as the postie drops the envelope
heaving heart as one is transported to another world.
The rustle of a foolscap paper with blotches of ink spills
the fun of deciphering the scribbles on the lines
the joy of reading the good news and smiling inwardly
or the tear drops making patterns of hurt, a smudge.
No more scented letters, a pressed flower enclosed
or a satin ribbon-tied bundle of emotions, kept
in secret boxes, locked and lie secure, untouched
for years and traces a life in another century.
The pretty stamps collection, the world in tiny thumbnails
Philately, a hobby that expanded one’s horizons,
stamps a thrill to own, on the Stanley Gibbons
albums, painstakingly and lovingly created.
Lost now, in the techno world of emails, Instagram, Twitter
Switch a computer on to get an invite or a sympathy card
The joy of, ‘Lost in post’ gone forever now, a globalised world
of instant moments, sated, forgotten in the ether.

-Leela Soma