All the guys who would have mattered.
We sit in the airport at Delhi Flight to Varnasi dealyed For uncertain hours Bomb blast at the Hindu shrines Ganges now carrying the dismembered. I did not know, but I am told Our tickets do not entitle us for Boarding or lodging She looks at the children under the signage For the Cafetaria on the second level Jumping up and down and asking to be taken there They are also going to Varanasi The parents shouting at them to be quiet The counter clerk gives the kids a cadbury and a coke can More noise and merriment as they pull at the mother's jacket. I think of the girl I refused to marry thirty years ago As we learnt of her affair with a local youth We never knew for a fact She disappeared crying But never from my lonely moments May be she would have mattered. I think of uncle's daughter Whom my mom refused Thirty years ago As her dad did not agree to my Sister becoming daughter-in-law May be she would have mattered. I look now at wife's face In the stranded airport On way to Varanasi, to the eternal river, the Ganges, Looking longingly at the kids May be she recalls All the guys who would have mattered.
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