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Last night the beast of burden

preyed on darkness

the sinister weaving of mind

came into distinct presence

in a hill town, as  clouds rumbled

under black skies

Were  man and animal in conflict?

Or was it just the ghost stalking 

a town in the landscape of the wind,

sky and torrents of ghostliness?

Shillong you will never change,

ever since I knew you; to run 

through your streets in the darkness

of skies and only the call of the fox;

in wilderness of strange forests,

A terror stricken solitude…

I felt your shadow following me

as I ran home with footprints 

left behind. The moon slowly 

withered into a crescent as 

the hills were comatose

Years later I heard of 

the ghost and the bowler hatted 

horseman; as horse hooves rent night skies

Do you remember how the dark

forests groaned under the toiling

radiance of your sun, as winter moved

into bursts of cloudy seas?

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India. He has been writing and publishing his poetry for the last forty years.