Belonging

(for S)

Land of my birth
You may hold me traitor
For not having learnt
The language of your people
Of my love for you
However
I  let none know
And now
When I return fugitive
I feel empty
Having lost you to those
Who claim to love you more
What shall I say to them , Shillong?
Shall I say?
I have seen childhood wasted on your busy streets
And easy girls become easier…..
Shall I speak of the neighbourhood
I dared not enter
Or of the doe eyed girl
Who lived there
Whom I dared not love
Because shadows stalked her street
And what shall I say
To your poet
Who wishes to liberate your hills
Shall I say?
I wish ….
I too had hills to set free
And a land to call my own.