“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.”- Henry Winkler

You meet each other after a while

Greet each other with enthusiastic smiles

You exchange usual pleasantries

At the same time this opportunity you seize

To appraise each other, to estimate

What the other person has had on their plate

While you were out of touch- more often than not

Some versions of the following are your thoughts-

“She looks so skinny, I bet she has been

Working hard on her fitness regime”

Or “She is dressed in expensive (designer) attire

Must have come into money, she can buy what she desires”

Or “How attentive her husband is to her

She has everything that life can offer!”

Most women make such assumptions superlative

Get envious of the perfect life the other one lives-

While the reality may be quite different

Misfortune on first glance may not be apparent-

She is skinny because quite sick she has been

Business is bad but she does not want to be seen

Dressed shabbily, therefore she is attired

In her only presentable outfit; and she is tired

Of daily fights with her spouse, their marriage is ending

The world does not know yet, so they are pretending

To be extra nice to each other before you-

But of course this reality is not in your view

Meanwhile her assumptions about you are

Off the mark too, just about as far

From the truth as yours- the envy is similar too

Your interaction is skewed by assumptions untrue

I may not know what you are going through

You may not know my struggles, too

In making assumptions, let us not be quick

Then in futile envy make ourselves sick

Or worse, make an insensitive remark casually

Hurting the other person quite badly

Let us take time to observe, listen, learn

As friends, who can, in distress, to each other turn..

I write in verse, and often question

Myself on this literary format selection

Why is it that I find myself unwilling

To write in prose, why is poetry more thrilling?

Maybe the answer to this question is embedded

In my Indian heritage- intricate  concepts were threaded

In short verses (shlokas) in ancient Indian texts

Listening to the Gita probably had lasting effects..

Maybe I was influenced in some way

By the use of  verse in Shakespeare’s plays

His blank verses and rhyming couplets

Brought his plays alive on minimalist stage sets

The imagery in his verses left an impression

Quite lasting, I say in full confession

In writing, the value of brevity

Has often been impressed upon me

Important as it is in scientific discourse

What initially appeared to have been forced

Upon me now comes naturally to me-

Poetry compared to prose begs more brevity

Language must be more effectively deployed

In writing poetry- thus this is the medium I enjoy

Here is the final thought- let me confess

This is not original, nevertheless

Let me tell you how poetry and prose affect the mind-

The relationship between  reader and writer is intertwined

In a novel- it is a dialogue between the two

While a poem is for self-expression, what it tends to do

Is help the poet process his conflicts internal

Oblivious of the effect on the world external

Since I was looking to resolve my internal conflicts

Poetry happened to be the medium I picked…

Here I end my verse hoping I shall be

Writing verses into eternity..