With You...

I love you now, I loved you then, I shall love you later. In every lifetime, I have loved you, and I will continue to.

We were probably lovers since before the beginning of everything. When the Big Bang happened and the universe tore itself into being, maybe we were two tiny pieces of the same explosion. Maybe we drifted towards each other when planets began to form and die, when stars burned out and new ones took their place.

We were probably lovers when the first fish appeared in the ocean. We swam in shallow seas and chased each other through currents. Unbothered and happy, we lived in corals. We probably died when a big fish saw us play chase and decided to join in and make us its meal for the night. It swallowed both of us at once, and we died together.

We were probably lovers as dinosaurs, walking the earth together, chasing smaller animals was our form of fun. We fought together when other dinosaurs tried to walk on our land. We might have been close enough to feel each other’s warmth when that brutal meteor came crashing down. Maybe we burned together before it was over.

We were probably lovers during the early age of humankind. We lived in a small cave, surviving on what we could find. I went out foraging for berries while you hunted and brought back flowers with the prey. After dinner, we lay on the grass, watching the night sky and giggling. We probably died when a wild rhino decided to trample our fire and us in the process.

We were probably lovers during the rise of civilisations. You were a noble man, and I was a handmaiden. You never wanted the life that came with your bloodline, so we ran away to a quiet piece of land, built a small hut, tended to our cows, pigs and chickens. We lived a simple life. Our lives probably ended when the noblemen found us. They tied us to stakes next to each other and set us on fire for daring to choose love over order.

We were probably lovers during the Renaissance. I was an artist, and you were a playwright. I laid my eyes on you and you became my favourite muse. I decided to remind the world what beauty looks like for years to come. Your characters were inspired by my quirks, my art and me as a whole. You showed the world how it felt to be loved. We created art from the quiet moments we shared, from our small home filled with music, paint, and words. We probably died holding each other in the chaos of a protest that turned violent, believing that we were dying for something that mattered.

We were probably lovers during the Great Wars, surrounded by smoke and steel. You worked with machines, and I worked with letters. Even in all that noise, we found small moments to laugh, to share a cup of tea, to dream of silence. We were separated by war, then reunited under a smoky sky. Love was the only thing that kept us human when the world tried to become something else. We probably died while running towards a bunker, the skies rained fire. We held onto each other till our last breaths, promising to find each other again.

We are lovers here and now. In this modern age of screens, traffic, and noise, you still feel like the only constant. We spend a few days together before we go miles apart to build a life. Screens keep us together, and we crave warmth. We hope that soon we will be together, always. I wish to spend this entire life with you, to die beside you when the time comes, as we’ve always done across every version of time.

And in the next life, I don’t know what the world will look like. Maybe it will end. Maybe it will begin again. Maybe we’ll be dust, or code, or something that doesn’t even have a name yet. But one thing is certain: I will love you again. I will find you again. And when it ends, wherever or whatever we are, I will die beside you again.

Got questions? Write to me: deepanjali2k@gmail.com.

The image is AI-generated!