Poem on Dream – The Mid Night Horseman
The Mid Night Horseman - Poem on Dream
A platinum wash of moonlight
lit up the scene in its mercurial splendour.
Colours were lost.
Everything appeared in stark black and white.
And silver.
Up ahead, the river lay languid, sparkling in a steely sheen,
like a sword unsheathed.
The sandy bank stretched out, its white unblemished,
like a virgin unsullied.
The whistling winds upped a crescendo
as it tugged at my unkempt hairs and clothes
like a living thing.
All was silent.
Not even a jackal yowled.
It was near mid-night, on a full moon night.
I clutched the parapet of the palace terrace,
as I waited with eager anticipation for the
Mid-night Horseman.
I had waited for him for years together.
He was supposed to ride on a moonlit night
over the sandy bankso
or that is what the folklore was all about.
That is what my dreams had whispered
ever since my childhood.
I knew that, come what may,
I had to take a glimpse of him,
for he embodied my hope.
I had waited for him to come,
to ride across the expanse of the white sandy bank,
on his steed, as black as midnight.
But he never came.
My radiant watch showed the two fluorescent hands
almost coming together in apposition.
A silver-white owl swept soundlessly forth
to swoop down on an unseen, unsuspecting kill.
Such a vision leads to wealth.
another folklore says.
I smiled as I turned and all but fainted.
I wasn’t alone.
A girl was standing there, at the other side,
clutching the parapet with knuckles turned white.
A comely damsel, clad in a white sari,
of such a delicate beauty that a poet would be hard put
to describe it on paper.
She turned and she smiled
and the world smiled with her.
“So you also stand in wait,” said she.
“I know, I know it all.
You have a long, long wait ahead of you,
for he’ll never come.
He never does.
Not even for me.”
Her twin drops of anguish
sparkled like diamonds, as they caught
the moonlight.
“Who are you?” asked I.
The dame smiled again, and such a smile
that sorrow would have hid her face in shame.
“I am your dream
and this is dreamland.”
The sun shone bright when I awoke.
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