Periwinkle blue
Lime green
Brick red
Lemon yellow

Chequered shirt
Ankle jeans
A-line skirt
A warm, feathery trousseau

Tartan from Scotland
Cotton from the Grand Canyon
Embroidered chiffon from Switzerland
Traditional silk from Thailand

Custom-made
Bought in yards, and stitched
Ready to wear
Altered and fitted


Glossy fabrics
from across the world
tossed layer upon layer
on your arms.
Outfits waiting to set
a million hearts aflutter
sitting pretty
in your closet.
Yet not a thing
will feel right
from within,
not unless
you are comfortable
in your own skin.

-

12 turns should do it, I decide,
as I fiddle with the time turner in my hand.
I wonder if the speed might triple, were you in the same continent as me.
Because, 365 days ago, before you chose to fly 7584 miles away, we were only 12 elephant steps apart. When just the idea of living in the same city as you, was abundant for my heart. Then dawn struck. You grew wings and I let the words I've always wanted to say, stay firm in my throat.

The night sky sparkles and I pause for a moment. I stop tracing your face with my toes on the sand-smeared tiles in my terrace and toss the time turner into the abyss. I fish my phone out and punch in the numbers I've unceasingly dialed and erased. Day in and day out. Only this time around, I let the ring go through.

Long-distance calling should be made cheaper.

-

My dad always says that someday,
my feet will carry me to an unfamiliar place
that looks like home -
with ivory-coloured walls,
coconut treetops dancing in the wind,
the scent of shiuli flowers lingering in the air - and I would walk right in,
without missing a beat,
like I have forever lived just there.

But if I were to waddle along to my room
and do not spot a million empty cardboard boxes staring up at me on my way,
I'd find out, I tell him.
I'd find out when I don't hear
my mum's Abheri ringing through the house
over the pressure cooker's dulcet whistles,
when I want to put my feet up and don't see books strewn on every inch of the bedding,
when the decoloured walls don't smile through the cracks the moment I trace my fingers over them,
I'd find out, when I fall flat on my face while running amok behind my dreams, and the earth beneath feels foreign to my skin, to my mindless mayhem.

-

My legs have turned to jelly...

-

All I need now is...

-

If I could tell you what it means to me...

-

Amma

-

We'll meet again

-

I thought I saw someone like you...

-

Remember me

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