Where Have You Been?

where have you been?



Long time no see

he said to me

with angry eyes



where have you been?

why did you leave?

not even good-byes!



my shame hung heavy

on my stooping shoulders

for I could not

rhyme my answers

anymore



he kept taunting

needling me

riddling

with his piercing stares


the poet in the mirror



as I shaved

yet another night's useless crop

off a vaguely familiar face




the only thing that grows

on me these days

I told him

as I rinsed the razor



but where have you been?

tell me, where have you been?

he went on



the same place

I said wearily




as I searched the walls

for a trace of a door

and turned my back on him


the poet in the cracked mirror





Rajendra Pradhan


This is my first attempt at poetry, in a year & half.