Saayali.

On the back of my mind I know I have a home to go:
Where the lights fade into endless conversations
About the phony and the afraid that surround us all.
Swallowing me complete: the poetry, the serenity,
The solace, the presence of someone time taught me
How to love. But can love be taught? 
It seeps in deep, it sings me to sleep, it wakes me
After a nap, it loses itself for me to find: this is love.
And you learn to live with the midnight comfort of
An old blanket that you've just re-found. 

Saayali, now our world speaks your words,
Now Sonepat knows a language new, that you
Taught. Taught them how to speak.
You make me question much like the intellectual
But you teach me to love like the irrational.
How hopeless, how useless, but yet I learn
For in love there's magic, in love we find
The part of ourselves we're ready to let go of.
You teach me to resist, but also to feel.
You teach me pessimism, but also hope.

Saayali, when the world speaks your words,
I smile like a proud mother. In you, I find the light
I thought missing in everyone. In you, I find the
Aggression for revolution. In you, I find the words
Once lost--never found. In you, I find all I need
To go through the day. In you, Saayali, I see the
Sky bluesky, the horizon, the radiance of a time
We conveniently forgot. And I'm afraid,
Afraid that you see nothing I see, that you fear
To be infinitely limited, that you lose yourself
More than you find, that you feel inadequate for a lot.
But that's not true.

Saayali, when you hear the world speak your words today,
Don't be afraid that they'll say it wrong. Us writers are most
Misunderstood, yet most loved. When the world speaks
Your words today, smile and hold my hand. I will show
You in those minutes that love is written, learnt and spoken
And those who run away from it, fall right back to it.
When the world speaks your words today, you will know
What I speak of when I say you teach me and I learn.
The world will speak your words today, and you will learn
How to teach love again.

Saayali, I think you forget that this is not the last time,
If no one else will, I shall speak your words again.
We need to be reminded. Need to be taught. Need
To ask the question: What, after all, is a bard?
Without your words, we might live. But live a life
Of no question? Saayali, wake up and know:
The world needs you and your words in their entirety.
And when they speak your words like they say:
"To be or not to be", I will still grin like a proud mother.
For in you, I find the truth I think I lost much before
The lights went out.

To Saayali, with all my love.