Poem for Friday: A Promise

by Ananthi Parekh


A Promise
Isp. Brooklyn (2015)


Promise
A bond of words made between
People and places and things
By definition
Well my favourite of the four,
Supplied by my tiny engine:
The quality of potential excellence.
Although, that isn't the type of promise I'm thinking of
Yearning for
The definition for that one is:

A declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a particular thing will happen.

But that's soulless now isn't it?
That one is never just a one,
It's the one or one of a few
Not just some ethereal ‘one’

But a ‘declaration’
A Declaration
The word alone screams for an image of two lovers
Standing breathtakingly far apart despite everything
And talking, however loudly or quietly, because
Of everything, or anything, that's happened
And you can just imagine their heart and feelings
pouring from their lips like water from a broken tap
that should probably have been fixed long ago
Probably
But it hasn't
In this beautiful case
The tap wasn't fixed, and now,
Now the water, these words and feelings
Would keep going on until
there is no water left
And those ‘ones’ would stand staring
Two ones, staring at each other like deer,
Caught in the light of each other
And if this view of light is mutual
Then this ‘declaration’ would turn into an
assurance, that ‘one’ will do ‘something’ in particular,
Or that a ‘thing’ will happen
Because that is what's truly beautiful

The transition from memories and
Touches and meaning and feelings
From shared experiences that can be
Recalled by nothing more than a connection
Of eyes
From a reliance created by the familiarity of the curve of bones in
Someone's face

To a promise
Made by one, sealed by the other