-Afnan

Dear first friend in college,

                 They say never forget your firsts. Firsts are hard to forget, highlighted in yellow. The rest blurs into memory like a photocopy of a photocopy.

First day in school.

First time on stage.

First pay from part-time.

First love.

First time on a plane.

Dear keeper of my secrets,

        We are lighthouses for each other in stormy seas.

        Firsts because time seems to be linear.

  Firsts remembered like post-it notes so that time makes sense.

          Won’t it be a relief to think of time as cyclic?

So that we will keep meeting each other at the corridor of anticipation.

 So that we will sit under the tree in the lawn, many nights, turning back the hands of the clock.

 So that we will spend many winter days of pearl-coloured skies on the white picnic table.

                           Because I can return to ‘The Little Prince’ anytime and always feel at home. I can forget and find myself in its pages any number of times because it reminded you of me.

           Won’t it be a relief to think of time as cyclic?

So that we will meet each other at these crossroads in every life.

                           Because our intertwined existence plays on repeat.

With love,

Your first friend in college