The keyboard staring at me-
What’s next to come is
An unnecessary string of
unasked-for apologies.
“I needed to say it.”
turns into
“I was stupid.
Never should have said it.”
I type in
“I’m so sorry.”
I send prayer hand emojis,
and console the loser turned winner.
I say to myself-
“I’m sorry, me.
I couldn’t be mean.”

On the rollercoaster of life,
when up above the clouds
where happiness is plenty
sadness is out of sight and out of mind.

On the rollercoaster of life
when down in the lowly trenches
where we lay embroiled in sadness
happiness seems non-existent.

We get lost in the moment
and forget that something else
except this current situation
exists beyond our control.

But when we are able to see
beyond what’s out of sight
and out of mind,
true sight is achieved.

They’re killing people of my kind
How do i stay calm when i have no kin
This great carnage has led me to believe
That my mind is black unlike our flag
You’re on with your lynching,
and us huddled in fear.
We’re the fly on the spider web,
stuck once- and forever dead.

Woven from wool
is a sweater
she gave to me.
Our love so minuscule
is in this sweater
“Wear it not freely.
I don’t want you to drool
every time our sweater
reminds you of me.
But loose it not,
Remember only the love
which hadn’t wrought.”

The sailor at sea
sends a letter to his wife who's
working as a seamstress
to make her life as free
as it once had been.

"Darling, the winds
Have not been kind to me.
My time has come, and
In the chariot of death -
I stand free."

"Take my letter to my lady"-
The sailor begs to the king of the free.
"Then, she will know
I am not to be grieved
For I have succumbed to be free."

Misery’s up and down
the streets of my hometown
where I’ve never truly belonged.

I don’t know the boys who played cricket
in the park or the friendly couple
that sat on the bench at the railway station.

I’m scared of them,
of what they’ll do to me
of what they’ll think of me

that depends on whether
I’m able to show them
my originality.

I’ve never came home all sweaty
from a cricket game
I’ve never known how to play cricket.

I’ve never made a friend here.
All I’ve ever known is school,
and poetry.

My self-identity’s forged
by not mingling with these people
by never mingling with me.

All I wish for here
is to find a way
to sneak my hometown

into a better, future version of myself.

Charge down the streets in our stupid dresses.
We parade with our nicest hearts.
It is heartbreaking to hear your thoughts on us.
But honey, calm down we are not going to come for you.

I’m playing the darling diva with the sash.
My friends are the badass *******.
We own the street with the mafia with us.
But babe, calm down we bring no hate to you.

Didn’t you hear the government gave us the right to exist,
Then why don’t you let me be me?
Didn’t you promise me that I could be whoever I wanted,
Then why do you not approve of who I am at the pride parade?