With Closed Eyes

By Rajnish Mishra

Closed eyes show

what the eyes miss when open:

Narrow lanes, stone steps,

domes, temples, river-

Not any river

but the one Ganga chosen

As the opening chapter

of my life near water.

Yes, those days;

not yet lost to oblivion

Pushed down

the bottomless pit of unconscious;

But those days

kept alive for the vision

That lightless arises

from the mind; held precious.

Wonderful, first time,

sweet as love I remember,

They say when looked at,

backwards, once its lost.

Pain and joy

both jointly arise and meld in one

As metals that alloy,

so different,

yet become then one.

Joy is the thing

that’s bought with pain as cost,

Or, is it pain for which

all joys we squander?