Love Letters

“Can you write a letter

like Florentino Ariza?

then consider yourself creative!”

declared the Professor.

I decided to write one

soaked in tears and passion

but turned out

a miserable failure

- a few lines

from the Don Williams song

scribbled on an empty page

in the notebook;

and left it at that…

The next time I took up the pen

I was in love

and waited for

words to ooze from its tip…

Alas, all it could do

was copy down poems

of E.B. Browning and E. E. Cummings

I dispatched to my lover

in a sealed envelope.

The third time, however,

I finally learnt

to serve my feelings on paper…

It took pain

it took longing

it took shattering to the infinitesimal degree

I realized,

to write one...

I remembered Neruda!