To a friend far away

This post is a poem I read in 'Delhi Times' or 'Saturday Times' of Times of India published in December 1996. I don't know the name of the poet as I didn't really bothered to copy who wrote the darn thing. It is amongst one of the poems I actually never understood. What made me read it was the title of the poem - 'To a friend far away', it intreagued me, made me ask questions - what is it about a friend who is far away; why he (the poet) is writing something for him / her; what is there which is so important for him to convey to the audience through a poem; etc. It is certainly written with finesse. If you understand the meaning of this work, please do care to explain it to me. The poem follows:

To a friend far away

Between official letters, I doodle the wet,
Wild tendrils of a familiar alphabet:

I leaf through books, watch the sand
Run as I read small print inked on your hand:

Breathing the sulphur of the city fumes,
I sense your far away breathing rhythms

Quicken as you turn and round,
Looking for a child in the market crowd:

Hear oceans lash between now and now,
Groping in the mist for what I can know,

Do, or be, when affections find a bird,
Tiny, button-eyed, city-bewildered,

Green-yellow, hopping in the yard: I take it
Home in a kerchief to a check ered blanket,

May be only to find it dead,
By morning in the twist and fold

Of my confusions my absent presence,
Far away rivers amok in my continents.

-Unknown