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fray narte Sep 2020
i am so tired of
my wrists being a battlefield —
the shrines for all the times i fell —
they all keep falling apart,
and nothing lasts long enough
for all these wounds
to turn into scars.

maybe the problem is that scars mean you're healing.
maybe the problem is that i'm not.

i have worn this skin away —
long shunned by softness
and each day, i cannot fathom how
i can ever manage to hold gentle things —
press them against my chest
when everything i hold
bleeds and breaks,
including me.

i wish my tongue was more made for poems
and not for dry-swallowed poppies;
the moon flinches at the very sight.

i flinch too.

and i am so tired of my entire skin
being a battlefield
when no one can see the casualties
buried quickly —
buried well.

and oh, what i'd give to be
soft enough to grow flowers on graveyards —
and soft enough not to break myself.
artisticAR Aug 2020
Mom
My mother died at forty-eight
Far too young to go that way
It's been decades since I've relived
that day
But today would have been her birthday
so in celebration, I'm going to rewind and press replay
to remind me of her
charismatic beauty
and generosity and
oh dear...I need to keep
my tears at bay...
...amp
artisticAR Aug 2020
The rooms in our house are
possessed
by every soul living in this crowded nest
At night, our spirits converge to confess
the secrets desires of the day that were never met.
...amp
Parishmita Aug 2020
The sun was mellowing like a luscious mango
and a small slit on its zest,
poured out its savoury sweet rays in the sky
turning the never-ending space into a blend of coloured popsicles,
from the brightest orange to a chrome of honey like amber
reviving my dull loafing adulthood
back into a fanciful imaginary childhood.

I am reckoned to talk about rocket science
to see things like those of spacecrafts and satellites.
But all I think of is walking over rainbows
And riding on white unicorns
unlikely of a grown up with rational outlook
but promising to a dreamy child
wanting to fly higher and higher on the carpet of cotton clouds.

All through the years, the imagination of a child
sheared off by precise and wise reasoning,
the innocence of the heart uprooted right away
once it believed it grew to what it has become today.
everything turned from feathers to ashes
when we learned that we can fly without wings
swirl up high in the sky with winged machines
but still cannot touch and make cloud *****
like the way we imagined and dreamt
when we were naive and small.
artisticAR Aug 2020
Once, I had a beautiful friendship
now wilting away from lack of priority
the connection broken, slips away with useless attempts at redemption and honesty.
You kept me anchored during rough seas when my world washed away
but time, its illustrious enemy
has changed it but perhaps we'll resume it one day.
...amp
fray narte Aug 2020
oh, to be a
delicate thing
in these feral waves;

i remember steady grounds,
veneered floors,
greek columns —
my hand pressed softly
in the small of your back;
fingers —
aching
for the slightest of touch,
i remember sunlight;
our hearts were
lighter back then.
oh how we were
the envy
of chaotic things
and lonely gods.

now,
look at this war
i'd waged for you
as termites
eat away
at those
sunlit memories;


what's the point of fighting
when the sea already
has swallowed
and spat poems
written from the
losing side
of this war:
a mess
of what used to be
a delicate love;
now,
i'll fit
all of these
heartbreaks
in a letter if i could —
leave it on your shore.


and i
loved you
so;
i remember you
loving me back, helen;
i remember
sunlight
and
happier times.


now this love
is a wreck
of a battleship,
sinking,
drowning
in the weight
of these sighs.

now this love
are embers
dressed
in all
the muted shades of blue.

now this love
is not delicate —

it's just
breakable.

it's just
broken.

and oh how we were
the envy
of chaotic things
and lonely gods.
fray narte Aug 2020
August took it all away — the long peaceful drives before the daylight, the fresh sheets and coffee kisses and the scent of calm after the storm, the eyes — your eyes, deep brown in contrast of the afterglow.

August took it all away, so easily — all slender fingers and somber face — the comfort of the hearth, and the promises, and the sunlit, warm days of summer; how happy we were. Darling, how happy we were. Now the walls are oppressively dull behind vibrant photographs, and the room is cold, and the silence is loud. How could I have known that I was walking around the pitfalls elaborately built on your fragile skin? In all this obscurity, I only know that I loved you so. How could I have known all the impossibly cruel ways that you would break my heart, when all you did was loved me so?

And you loved me, right? You loved me, for some time, before all the wrong there is — before all the pitfalls gave in, spoiling midnights and tainting mornings, taking down everything that I ever called home. You loved me, darling; at least that you did. You loved me.



At least that you said.


Now August has taken it all away, and all I know is that heartbreaks are worse in the early hours of a cold morning.




I hope September is warmer. Brighter. Gentler.


I hope September is kinder to us.
Unpolished Ink Aug 2020
A writers mind is a splash of fertile paint upon a wall.

We shake the brush and sit and watch the living colours fall.
Tatiana Jul 2020
My desk is clear.

Unless you count the neat stacks of papers
I have yet to attend to
that sit on my left and right
except for right in front of me.
Right in front of me there is nothing
but a keyboard and a monitor that's lit up
with a too bright white page.
The cursor blinks in and out of existence
much like the ideas in my head.
I type a word then delete.
I type a sentence then complete
an entire page with great phrases such as:
"There once was a someone in a land
that was known for its great something or another.
The sky looked very pretty, maybe a few clouds
which are puffy and white
a large, dark bird flies across crying in victory
with a mouse hanging limp from its claws
and that someone stood on a hill,
or in their room, or on the street,
staring up at the bird and wondered
what it'd be like to fly,
or to hunt,
or to be the predator not prey,
to be feared not fearful.
Perhaps this someone will never know
what it'd be like to rule, to live on top of the hill,
as they'd always be stuck in the town below."
There are too many choices to manage
too many places this story could go
and my nameless main character
are they friend or foe?
I don't know!
I knock my neat stacks of papers to the ground
they scatter all over my office
I shut down my computer so that the screen goes black
and my reflection stares back, shakes her head
in judgement.
My pulse pounds in my temples as the pressure builds
and I look down at my desk to avoid my own eyes.

My desk is clear.
©Tatiana
my guys, writing is difficult.
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