SUBMISSION : A LOVE POEM

Ask me why I am crying, I will laugh.
Ask me why I am laughing, I will cry.
Sometimes my grief and glee together come--
That is too subtle for you to ask me why.

And when you see my features drawn all bare:
I cry not when you see a cause to cry,
I laugh not when you see a cause to laugh--
Just ask me why, I'll smile silly and stare.

And there are times, when you leave me alone,
When solitude has settled, silence drawn,
I cry and cry inconsolably enough,
Then all tears inside I laugh and laugh...

Hunts me my slip that robbed me of my love--
Heart grieves, mind aches, as years painfully go by;
Witnesses are the sun, the stars, the sky above
As flow my tears stop-less, and eyes don't run dry.

My folly is mine, my loss I alone will bear;
Alone will I atone, alone will I cry
Till life endures, to death till tears run dry,
Till on her holy feet I rest my life forever...

 -- N P SAMAL