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Oh dear Adriana

neither you sound corny

nor the cornier is your voice

you shower me with silver linings

helped me with my choice

I enjoyed my isolation

set myself free

and the very moment

I hugged a tree

I hugged the stars shining over the sky

I hugged my image reflecting in the mirror

I loved myself

in spite of every error

Oh Adriana

childlike is our nature

but we have transformed

into futile beings

how can we find passion glimmering

and profound love

in everything we are doing?

Oh Adriana

you speak like a wise woman

but you are still

a curious and wondrous girl

I wish your thoughts would heighten

neither would any monument

be that much taller

What would I speak more?

I am a silent bird

glancing at the river from the shore

pain resides at my heart’s core

when I remember my past

I get lost

here I find peace no more

Oh Adriana

you write to me

I feel good

I don’t see you smiling

but your words do change my mood

our world may be too dense

but I feel like

we are from the same wood

Oh Adriana

we fight over race

religion, caste

don’t know when will these prejudices last?

Trees may be different

but every leaf will wither away

time doesn’t care

it travels so fast

the world is a beautiful place

but why is it woven in complexities

that seem so vast?

Oh dear Adriana

I am not bound by philosophies

you and I

we are all bound by time

I know we have distances

geographical distances

but we are together

like a non-composed rhyme

This is the poem I wrote for my pen friend Adriana from Mexico. I considered her my sister, although we always called each other friends. I wrote this poem on 24th March 2015 and sent it to her by email.

I honestly don’t remember how I met Adriana. We might have met through a Yahoo Messenger chat room or Hotmail, where you could randomly search for an ID and start talking to strangers. Somehow, among all those random people on the internet, we found each other and kept talking.

Adriana was in college at the time and I was a teenager in college too. We used to talk about our cultures, colleges, families, and whatever was happening in our lives. We were young, living in two completely different parts of the world, but somehow we became close.

Looking back at the poem now, I think it represents that simple connection we had despite the distance between us. It was about friendship, growing up, understanding ourselves, our cultures and the world around us. There is also a lot of innocence in it. We were just two teenagers who happened to meet somewhere on the old internet and, for a while, became an important part of each other’s lives.

Adriana and I haven’t been in touch for a very long time. We’re still just one email away, but somehow, I don’t feel like reaching out anymore. I’m not as open as I used to be. This poem reminds me of that younger, more innocent version of myself, and I think, in some ways, I’ve managed to hold on to that part of me.