Get ‘tough, become thick-skinned…..’,

The leaf was meant to be fragile

The giving over to toughness
Floods !

Letting the rain fall in all its majesty

Glimpses of them
drinking water from one another’s un-nervous palms

Certain poems were held in these palms
When all else was washed away!

The Leaf, able to breathe
sounds of tears are not heard
In the rains..

The Leaf
A Leaf..

When the leaves of the book
Were born in their hearts

Hearts that live