Little by little
I break my wings
To run with this world

-

Let's write a poem tonight,
together, you and me,
to see
if anyone remembers
us from the past.

We will then walk away
silently, separated
into our present,
and someday in future,
we will remember this night.

A poem will rest. Here. Anywhere.

-

The dark side of midnight is that it brings out everything clearly that I missed doing in daylight as I close my eyes.

-

There’s a sayin’, “...happens for good”,
I wonder if you would...
Say now, as the storm is coming;

Caves have broken, so the sword,
Kings too on the road,
Say now, where’s dawn running?

There are clouds, there is rain,
Warm Sun will be again
As I know, there’s a silver lining.

-

"Then why not the laughing smiley? Or the one with the teeth?"

She continued typing.

"At least through emoticons yaar..."

I read my message again. Yes, I sent her the smallest smile emotion, not even the one with the wider curve.

"Hmm", I typed. Message sent.

Single tick.

(Pause)

As I waited, I scrolled the screen down to play with the mobile flashlight. On-off. On-off.

Double Tick.
Bluetick.

"Umm." She replied back.

(a minute pause)

"So?", her message came in.
"Idk", I replied.
"Why?", the query came in.

I paused this time.

I took a deep breath as if I was trying to inhale air for the last time. The intake produced enough sound that my ears could catch, usually missed due to unconsiousness. It was followed by zoning out of the mind. Only the irritating sound of the notification brought me back.

My instant reaction was to scroll the screen downward and press the sound bell icon to silent mode. My mobile is always on silent mode. It began once, now a permanent habit. I must have pressed the sound icon while playing with the flashlight.

The notification bar reminded me about the 3 messages received. I began to read.

-

I looked at the screen once again. It was the exact question that I was trying to avoid for more than a year.

"Nothing! All fine", I typed back.
"Oh, and I thought we were friends...", she was quick in her reply.
"You are!", I replied, followed by a smiling emoticon.
"Then I am right."

I was about to type with a "What?", but I saw that she was typing. I immediately pressed the backspace. The wait wasn't long.

"You are not fine", her chat read.

Kavishaa
typing...

-

DIAPER!


Instead of tiffin, Rohan discovered pad in Nandita’s bag.

“Diaper baby... Hahaha”, the boys bullied.

“Stop, idiots! That’s sanitary pad”, protective Shalini defended.

“A what?”, class 5 boys kept whispering.

-

ये आसमान के सितारे भी ना...
जनो कबका हो गया खुद खत्म
पर आज भी वो सपने दिखाते हैं,
बन्द कमरे के खिड़कियों से
आज भी वो नज़र आते हैं
ये आश्मान के सितारे भी ना...

- देबाशीष शर्मा

-

Tonight, let me touch 
A few souls, with my whisper.
Disappear at dawn.

-

Weep

Let me weep now,
I will hide as usual.
Don't worry, dear!
Somewhere...
maybe inside the closet or
behind the curtains of
that corridor
to the storeroom,
or in the deity room,
where the idols watch me;
I've turned
into an atheist now,
for those gods are now
plain idols for me,
sitting where I had placed them.
I have now built
walls around me.
I'll weep at night
when you sleep,
and I shall thank darkness once again.

Let me weep now.
It's midnight.

-