Carry forward

They say old habits die hard.

Is that why I cling

to a particular idiosyncrasy

of a past lover

and shamelessly flaunt it in front

of the next?


I ask for cold coffee at Candies

even when you're not there

For Nirmal Verma at the Prithvi bookstore

after realising his brilliance

I look for a book

with your common yet filmy name


Why?


Maybe because I like to own my scars

instead of hiding them.


My playlist bears testimony to the fact that

Carnatic music and Jazz can co-exist,

thanks to you two.


By the way, ever since you told me

about the empty rhyme scheme

my poems haven't rhymed.


This once, I want to kill

an old habit

of mine

Of loving people

past their time