Finding you is a treasure
It was a difficult measure
You make me happy
I don’t want your money
Only you honey

Chicago alley
fire escape
mournful sax

My chest is heavy,
and my throat tightens,
Breathing ragged,
head light.

I punch you until my knuckles bruise,
I scream until my throat bleeds.

I shout ‘WHY’
as if you owe me an answer.
I beg for a reason behind this hurt.
‘I hate you,’
three powerful words,
but they barely scratch the surface
of what I feel for you.

I look up.
You’re just a person,
like me.
You have scars,
flaws that don’t fade.
Just like me.

Then I catch the softness of your eyes,
vulnerable, full of emotions I don’t understand.
I feel sorry for you,
in some twisted way.

I blink and realize—
I’m in front of a mirror.
Because the only person I can never escape from
is me.

The silver moon seeps
through dark damp leaves
in the warm aromatic drizzle
of a cicada singing mango grove.
Musky night falls in Kerala.