Dear whoever you are.

Dear whoever you are,
I shall write you clandestine letters
And pretend
That you are my lover — and I
Yours.

Brewing tea for two
I shall pretend
You are to come to me after a long day
And curl up on the sofa
And wait for you
And when it gets late
I shall drink two cups of tea
The third — on the stove.

We could write imaginary sonnets
With soap suds,
In the kitchen sink.

"I am yours while I last,"
Says my bowl of alphabet soup to me
I digress, and tear old newspapers
To create a papier-mâché airplane
For our child
Who plays with my noodle hair
In the meanwhile.

Your humble treehouse
Could be our home —
I will bring my plastic teaset along
And we shall live together
Till the skies go red
And stars fall out like the pearls
From my mother's necklace once did,
When I broke it.

~ Tazeen Razi