Goodbye time

The feeling had finally sunk
in the people around.
We were parting,
after four years of fun and frolic.

We had the downs which
played low to the umpteen highs.
Who would remember the
one black sheep,
when we had ninety nine white ones?

The people around weren’t their
normal selves for a few days now.
They were happy at getting across
a wide autobahn in life,
but then the idea of parting from
friends, wasn’t very appetizing.

Some asked me how I felt about the same,
I replied that I had experienced
many such days in life.
I gave instances – when I had to leave
my parents, when I left school – two different ones.
I didn’t know when I answered that I was
only feigning mental strength.

We all said to each other,
that our lives would cross each
others some time, somewhere.
I knew we had our apprehensions about
this question – we hid it well.

When it was the actual goodbye time,
I still felt I was the ‘experienced’ one.
Little did I know what I was feeling
deep within.
When on the bus taking me away
from them, a sudden sense of loneliness,
gloom dawned in.

A phone call from one of them
was the last straw on the camel’s back.
It broke my defenses.
I had tears wet my eyes after a really long time.
I lost my normally present poise.
I had my glance fixed out of the window,
lest the co-travelers would see me in that state.

With my eyes moist I felt ‘normal’.