Red Envelopes

By Gaurav Parab

I enter the store for a pack of cigarettes,
I pause at the shelf of old unwanted VHS cassettes,
It has been a long day and I am tired,
A successful mind, a soul uninspired.

I am living, I might as well be dead
All I look for is a thought to take to bed.

I see her from the corner of my eye,
Poetry in motion, sweet living lullaby.
A stranger with fiery eyes I never saw before,
With a plastic bag from some store in Bangalore.

She shuffles disinterested through a row of soaps,
Randomly picking up a stack of red envelopes
I try to catch her eye and detect her smile,
I am alive now, if only for a little while.

Her shopping is done and she moves to the door,
I desperately try to make her stay a minute more,
The out of town stranger who made my day,
She turns back and smiles before going on her way

She is the thought in my head spinning out of control,
The pack of envelopes is not the only thing she stole.