Till we can't

Don't take Gibran's word for it

Go back to find you cannot go back

The television visuals show the streets

Of my native town flooded and my feet

Feel the water flowing around them

There were two theatres we frequented

My father and I, to escape home weather

In the square opposite the famous temple

Rationalists thundered against gods, myths

I remember the priest asking me to move

Throwing the flowers and ash at my hand

Careful not to touch, to avoid  any pollution,

Nothing has changed there or elsewhere

The god of music himself cannot cross

The lines of caste and get nearer the shrine

The past draws borders we cannot cross

Only the memories of places we can own

The land and times we still carry with us

Exist no more out there; when we go back

We find out for ourselves we can't go back 

But can remember as well as we can,

Till we can't remember even the way back.