A Traveller’s Diary

by Debleena Roy

What would a reader of a traveller’s diary seek to know from its pages? What would its pages say? Debleena Roy pens her thoughts in a poem under the theme ‘Travel’.

If you took a page
From my travel diary,
Would it dance nimbly
Around the water’s edge
Down the beaches of Sri Lanka?
Fly over the towers of New York?
Float over the canals of Venice,
Peep from a 400-year-old ledge?

Or would it stop, alone
On that cobbled street,
Devoid of landmarks famous,
Lost in the shadows of time?
Its paper wings stretched in
Solitary flight, an old folk song
Beating its familiar tune to a
Forgotten, wooden wind chime?

If you read a page from my diary,
See my pictures and my notes,
Of the majestic fort in Jodhpur,
The colourful markets of Turkey,
The street food at Florence,
The forgotten cafe in Malyasia,
Would you find what you look for –
Rich slices of world history?

Or would you stop for a moment?
Walk with me on my real journey,
Where the familiar hesitates, stops
Losing itself in that mist of rain,
Of the unfamiliar and the unknown?
Would you wait as I search the streets
Living, learning, giving, needing
Another moment alone with my pain?

Debleeena blogs at debleena-roy.blogspot.in and has had articles published in Chillibreeze and eZinearticles.

Pic : http://www.flickr.com/photos/leoniegirlintheworld/