Tregedy.

Words can be bullets, or they can be rain.
But understand that both can take or save a life.
– Saransh Gupta (Words of Wonder)

Homework

Settlements.

I had this twin.

I had this twin,
thin unseen,
with a weird walk,
or so it would seem.
‘He has no mind’,
people whispered,
but mother knew,
his just had a hole in it.

I had this twin
– a child in his teen,
and while we judged,
he watered the garden green.
He painted a bit on flowers,
and shooed away the bees,
and until I got back from school,
he would wait for me with the keys.

I had this twin
who hugged me at odd hours,
and helped mother during dinner,
after he had gifted her dandelion flowers.
He could not speak
so he would bow down,
and not get up
until she kept her frown.

I had this twin,
without pride and with remorse,
until he fell where I was jumping
while he pushed me away from the shore.
He thought that I would die,
while all it was was a dive,
so while he remains down submerged,
I’ll sleep a little less tonight.

– Saransh Gupta (Words of Wonder)

Photo Credits: Kristina Varaksina Photography

When infinity gets a limit.

So even though you were a universe, you still had an end.
– Saransh Gupta (Words of Wonder)

Our Shades of Grey

Friends? Nah. We aren’t just friends. Maybe being just friends is a bit too dark. But we aren’t lovers either. Maybe being in love is a bit too bright. Half-girlfriend? It’s a cliche. We lie somewhere in between breaking the cliches, beautifying the grey shade, having something between us that’s too mundane to be labelled or titled yet magical enough to hold us on both ends.

Life isn’t a game of chess. Blacks and whites are often hypothetical. Picking up a side is theoretical. Look at us; you lie there with your own little insecurities you inherit from your past, and me, with my worries about my future. Maybe we are just two passengers on a ferry waiting for the other end to arrive, knowing that it will not last forever. Maybe we just represent the logarithmic function; we do not exist at the extremities. We are just legit between your zero and my infinity.

So let us not waste time picking sides and labeling things that aren’t meant to. Let us not just wait for the other end to arrive. Let us turn the slope of this function into a roller coaster ride. Let us just not exist but live this small eternity. Let me pick you and let you pick me and let us be together if not ‘forever’ but at least ‘always’.

~Vikalp Joshi

A letter from the ‘Ex’ to the ‘Contemporary’

We were just happy in our own little oasis, complete with each other until you arrived, like a sandstorm and filled his eyes with sand making him falter.

I wasn’t just his favourite; he needed me like oxygen wasn’t enough for him. I wasn’t just his leisure; I was his secret pinch of magic dust which made every chore worth doing. Every other day it would be my duty to heal the wounds he received from the battlefield called life. Insomnia hit him more often than others and I would just caress his hair to make him sleep like a toddler.

I would have given up long ago, but hope is a bitch. The harder I try to believe it’s over, the harder she kindles that spark breathing beneath these ashes. His sillage still tickles my nose asking me to hold on. For this, I’ll try, a bit harder this time. He may not need me now because it’s too sunny outside. It’s too bright for him to see the difference. But, times change my dear, times change. Someday, the sky will don a darker shade. The masks will fall off. He will die a little more inside and all you could do is stand there helpless, staring at the tempest taking its shape around you both. When his glass of scotch will not be enough, you’ll fail to offer him the “high” he demands. When he will fail to do his job, you’ll fail to keep this universe in place. It’s because I know, not everyone can withstand the storms inside him.

For now, I might be just a skipped song on his playlist. Mind it, skipped not deleted. The day you’ll fail to fix his ripped soul, he will turn to me and I’ll seize the day and you will never see him again.

~ Vikalp Joshi (Words Of Wonder)

“There are flowers
in this world
that only grow
after the ground
above them burns.
Scientists say
that the fire sets
the earth aflame
with the birth of these
special flowers which
wouldn’t grow otherwise,
that even though the fire
seems to destroy
everything it touches,
it can also bring
new colors into this world.
What I am trying to say
is that healing hurts,
but so does forgiveness,
and sometimes it is worth it
to see yourself bloom”
— Pavana पवन ( reader’s submission)

Her

 

I donned my shades to block out the streetlights and the stars
Spent nights watching the embers at the tip of my tongue
Hating for nights on end, the idea of you
I looked at the spaces between my fingers and thought of you
Like a child pining over a toy
A fool wishing for the sweet release
Of death
I stood still, playing it all over in my mind
Can I rewrite us?

I miss your voice
I wonder if you think about the times
Over a cup of coffee watching the wind play with the leaves
Remembering your hair in the wind
Reminiscing you dancing in your heels, grooving
Hanging on your words, I fell, Drowning
in your eyes
Imagine you reading by the fireplace
with your hair tied up
Your glasses and the smile
I heard your laugh on that cold wintry night
And fell in love all over again
Did you ?
-Akshat

Fear me more than Medusa

But fear me more than Medusa,
for my hair and for my locks,
as though they bear no poison,
they leave men rooted on the spot.
And they swoon when I blink,
and they believe me when I lie,
and they think that it be love,
and when I leave them they do cry.
so fear me more than Medusa,
for my eyes and for their spell.
They do not turn men to stone,
but to dust that flows in hell.
– Saransh Gupta