Nothing here,
nothing to see,
no one else
but you and me.

In darkness I
can't see your face,
and panic tears
have left no trace.

Later I'll
know what to say;
another life,
another day.

I thought it then,
I wonder now,
how it went wrong,
and mostly why.

You turn around,
I walk away.
I want to go.
I want to stay.

I'll keep breathing,
but to what cost?
The story of us:
Forever lost.

Nagulîŋ laɣəd
Si Usēŋ udâ na matā
Sa kakaduldog ku
Kompyuter niyang
Pirāŋ taon nang kaiba
Uda pundoŋ trabaho
Dāwâ pagál na
Padagos sana baga
Para kuno ku igin niya
Nailang nanaman kaya
ta kapayabâ sa igô
Gigiboɣon dawa uno
para ku igin niyaŋ sultero
dawa dakəlo na
Kapayabâ panaŋgad
na intiro

To Mr Arnav Gupta,
Forgive me bhai, your embers are still
fanned alive in my memories you are
still walking in circles in Ellipse Park

Dear Mr Gupta,
Do you know what distance a flame can travel on a summer day?
How far the flame travels in the camera frame, how long it keeps?
Your flame ephemeral everlasting still walking still wake
Purians pyres that covered brown bodies in 1687

Dear Arnav,
Do you remember when Sita sat in her Agni Praskar in Ramayana?
How women still throw themselves in their husband’s funeral?
What were you trying to purify through the seven flames?

I'm a stormy landslide
And you're an earthquake
A disheveling tide
Tide that caresses me
While I subside
Subside to heathens
The heathens whose embers forever collide
Collide in the arms of your feigned stride.
.
.
.
Mehek

A footstep can
     Change a
            direction.

A thought can
     Change a  
                mind.

An idea can
   change the  
             world forever.

i am a flower growing in the train tracks
i do not belong
but i want to
& i realize i may never
i realize that i may never ever fit in.
& you ask me, "what do you really know about this?
about love?
about bliss?" & i say that i
i know how your eyes look in the moonlight when you’re watching me as i sleep
i know that i belong with you & you belong with me
it’s not science, only the truth
but, my love, what if i want to belong to more than just you?
i feel like i’m only here because you created me
& like if you didn’t, i’d still be that broken little girl i used to be
but me & that old girl, we’re not even that far apart, you know?
we bleed the same, feel the same, we even cry the same
so how am i not her? how is she not me?
& you shush me & say that i
i am nothing but a flower growing in the train tracks
i do not belong
but i want to
& i realize that i may never
i realize that i may never ever fit in
but i want to
but i want to.