In The Relief of Darkness...

After the party, after the guests had left
an excellent chaos -
of cups and glasses, stubs and platters.
neither chatter nor music insists now.
and the last cab has pulled up
- and gone.

This house is my house. Again.

The silence is honest, all shadows tentative
I sit on the couch (the last guest)
unable to remember a familiar face, or uttered words
that had seemed witty only moments ago.
I remember and I remember -
and I remember nothing.

In the relief of darkness
I see now:
the after-party had been all along
the before-nothing.

 - Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

The relief of darkness. I love your writings, Siddharth. All of them.