to be conspicuously happy
feels like riding a bike,
backwards,

you've been told it is fun
(and you assume it is too!)
but the mechanisms
are so faulty
your feet refuse to rotate wrong,
your brain is confused and takes long
to right itself,
and eventually its forward-backward again

because that's the right way,
that is how your feet have been trained.

let me write two lines
which leave you blinded
in my grief
of not having ever written
something more potent
and lengthy
and in those two lines
you may read
my entire, complete
and exhaustive story.

Worn shoes
fall apart,
on a road smooth,
the despairing threads
and mended stitches
in pain for tomorrow,
never to claim,
they didn't try,
but to only claim
it is not always
for the strong
to survive.

It whips you in the face
or carries a flighty leaf
like the tide of the wind
it varies

sometimes enshrouding
is its twisted volition
aftertimes a soothing caress
most times, which comes
amidst the debris
of guilt
and trepidation
and fear

and this is not a measure
of Richter but the abyss,
which is carved deep
and has the potential
to acknowledge
the possibility
fervently,
that this is not
an existential anomaly.

the horizon
claims its mortality
by consuming the sun,
the sky
pronounces its existence
by littering stars,

bound by no one
two infinites collide
ear-marking the spread of time
on a time sheet,

with grids and figures
and algorithms,
innocuously designed
to measure oblivion
set lucidly aside.

Like a shrub among trees,
I seem too have become attached
to my past,
roots so deep
they linger, poignantly
in every breath of my leaves.
Strive as I may
to reach the sun
and grab at air
my arms fall short
my legs too nimble.
To keep strong,
I’ll just stand still
and hold this poise
till I touch and sky.

We all need our stars
here and there,
across landscapes
even and jagged.
In the glow
of the buttery sun,
they are hidden,
blinded by the sparkle,
awaiting the sweep
of darkness,
when we seem them out.

But, they are every present,
our stars,
in our days and nights,
always ready to be sought,
found,
and guide.

We all need our stars.