Golden

A Poem by Shaleen Rakesh

Beneath stuttering lights, the nightclub floats in a dream,
Two silhouettes lean into the dark, the night was endless?
We reached for each other with the faith of those who cannot imagine falling,
We called it love, even as the universe gathered around us.

At nineteen, the heart makes its constellations,
Stendhal’s crystals gathered light around everything we desire;
The beloved became the horizon, the air, the reason for being,
And for a little while, even time seemed to dance to our breath.

Years later, we learnt the quiet architecture of loving
Two souls and their own gardens to offer shade;
The fever softened, the fire settled into something enduring,
Yet sometimes an old song brings back the beautiful delirium of the flame.

We look back now, without sorrow, or the wisdom of regret,
As one remembers a city glimpsed through a midnight train;
Its lights still shimmer somewhere beyond years, impossibly golden,
Grateful we once believed the night would never end