The Best of Ruskin Bond Part 23

But the ripple of running

Water in the reeds.

We came to London, lost in November mist:

In an ash-grey dawn at Tilbury dock

I longed for the warmth of a kiss

Of sunlight.

In the busy streets

Were cavalcades of people

Hurrying in a heat of hope.

But I saw only

The wheat-field, the tea-slope . . .

A cow at rest.

And longed for the soft, shoeless tread

Of a village boy . . .

Love Lyrics For Binya Devi

1.

Your face streamed April rain,

As you climbed the steep hill,

Calling the white cow home.

You seemed very tiny

On the windswept mountainside;

A twist of hair lay

Strung across your forehead

And your torn blue skirt

Clung to your tender thighs.

You smiled through the blind white rain

And gave me the salt kiss of your lips,

Salt mingled with raindrop and mint,

And left me there, where I had come to fetch you-

So gallant in the blistering rain!

And you ran home laughing;

But it was worth the drenching.

2.