I will let you be
Whoever you wish to be
He doesn’t love you
Who would limit you
To who you are now
He does not love you
Who would have you
All to himself
That is not love
But the need of love
As if you are a fetish
Come away with me
And I will let you love
Whomever you want to love
Because I love
That you want
More than just me
It would be enough
To know
You loved yourself best
It would be enough
To know
Who you loved most, next
Chandni Chowk
Old Delhi
New Delhi, India
Taken during travels, 2017
The words to the poem began forming, had begun to coalesce, when this image joined them in my mind.
The words, though, arise from a friendship which, in another place and another time, may have been much more. She was already married, to a man she loved, to a man who needed her, fully and completely, and who needed her to need him just as much.