Magic Tiger

Magic Tiger

So you go back
for six months.
We talk
on the phone
or online.
You become
a voice,
an sms.
As we talk,
I envision
your eyes
snapping,
glinting, jumping,
even changing color
as they will.
Grey to hazel
to golden brown
to almost-blue.

Each city
shadows you
into other worlds:
Lahore, Karachi,
Islamabad.
You become
cities, cultures,
languages, houses.

You acquire
and reacquire
accents, gestures,
songs, curses,
movie names.

Perhaps one day
I too will journey
once more
to acquire
reacquire
to learn
unlearn
relearn

to unbecome
and become
again.