Echo Rooms

Sometimes love walks into a room

and hears an echo that isn’t its own.

It says good morning,

But what you hear is

Don’t leave me.

Every silence becomes a test,

Every pause is a prophecy.

You scroll through messages,

Measuring your worth

By the timing of a reply.

You smile,

But your body doesn’t believe you.

It remembers nights of doors slammed,

Voices that cut,

Hands that withheld.

It whispers, 'Be ready to run.'

So you love from the edge of the doorway—

Half in, half gone,

A hand always on the handle.

Friendships feel safer,

But even there,

You count the times you reached out first.

You wonder if they’d notice

The day you stopped trying.

Unhealed pain builds cities inside you,

Each street named after someone

Who promised to stay.

You keep walking them

Searching for closure

Like a child looking for a home

That no longer exists.

But someday,

A quiet hand will rest on your shoulder

And not demand anything.

It will say,

You can stop running now.

And your body will believe it.

The echoes will fade,

One heartbeat at a time.

In love with the sea

The sea is a big tease
It sends out its waves to touch me

I think it wants to play
But it is just its nature to reach out

It wants to embrace the land
I am just in the way.

Nevertheless, I stay on.
Welcoming the rushing waves to my bosom.

Letting it hit me as hard as it wants.
I stay on till I start smelling of the sea.

Exhausted,
Fearing that another embrace could drown me-

Slowly, with unsure steps
I head back to where I sleep.

Someone else takes my place.
And she plays with the same belief.

‘You are mine,’ she chants like me.
I smile as I walk away.

The sea is like a promiscuous lover-
Who gifts you with only heartbreaks.

The beauty of some relationships is that
they do not last.
Because if they did,
They would have killed you.

A fish tank

(Dedicated to all those who are looking for a fresh start)

We are all living in our self-constructed echo chambers.
Where our opinions reinforce our prejudices.
Step back for a moment.
Look at the vivarium.
On a sunny day, the edges glisten.

Break free from this fish tank reality
Of skewed perceptions and semi natural existence.
Free yourself from all pre-existing notions.
Things that define you-
Adjectives earned and awarded.

Let the universe come to you.
Wash you to a different shore of unbound reality. Sans glass boundaries.
Give up the false anchors that tie you down.
Swim in the ocean
Not in a glass tank.

You Taught Me Love

I longed to be lost

To be blind in love

But you said-

It wasn't the way.

You asked me:

To open my eyes

To the beauty around

In the world to see.

You taught me:

To laugh aloud

When we made love.

And to trust like a child.

You wanted me:

To be in love,

But also be

Who I should be.