Brown and Blue

There is brown paint on my nails. I want it to look like my hair and eyes
We belong to the same colour family.
My thoughts are not bright like they usually are,
They are running in shades of a dark dark blue
Is it as dark as the ocean? Or the sky-
I don’t know. I don’t remember the last time I had taken a full breath
And looked at the mighty sky.
There are no clouds these days. Just blue and a blob of sun
Melting away each day.
My insides feel as tied up as my bed-
It has not moved from my room in years.
I learnt how to drive the car recently. But I am scared of accelerating too much
Or steering away. From what? I don’t know
I seek comfort from blue screens
People across blue screens. But the emotions also bleed blue in my system.
My bed is still here. The sky is still here.
Should I paint my nails blue, too?

(I painted them a grey)

~insight07

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Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.

Borrowed time

I stand on the battleground
Of many many wars
Watch the chaos
Until everyone falls

This is the origin
Of the stream that flows
Blood of my brothers and sisters
From today and ages ago

Smoke from burning pyres
Pollutes the sky once blue
The burning flames
Spark revenge in few

Clouds black and grey
Envelope us all
Gloom, regret, despair
Who can escape the fall?

For reasons of all kind
We have killed each other
Differentiated on basis of caste, religion, gender
Then why do you call me brother?

I wish we would understand
We are alive for moments five
Transient, fickle, small
Unlike nature, that will forever thrive

I have nothing to say
To all who live
But just this one advice
That I would like to give

Nothing is yours
Nothing is mine
Just us living
On borrowed time

~insight07

Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.

Soldiers

I place my words like soldiers
In front of a palace, a fort
Protecting the royalty inside
The thoughts inside
From arrows, bombs, and stones.
I set my eyes pleasant and
A smile on my lips,
Inside, the ground is quaking and the walls are falling
Someone is screaming
A cloud is thundering
Loose dust is flying with eagles in brown skies.

My fist sized world is suddenly open
A bubble already bursting
To the ocean of eyes, and eyes
Minds with gardens and deserts inside.

Fish bowls hold water,
Shores crash to the land.
I write, therefore I am
I am, therefore I write.
And no truth can cover this truth-
A sky over a world that is unforgiving
But a bright blue.
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~insight07

Access prose and poems in my book, “Dreaming in a Fish Bowl”!

Link- https://rb.gy/nbxljh

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Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.

Reach

It is blistering hot. The earth is parched
Soil cracks and my insides are open to the world.
Words sit and droop as flowers dry
Bright pink petals, turn paper stiff
Then soft, as aging skin.

Air thickens, settling in my throat
People choke and cough, and drive cars
An arm apart, I could reach out of the window
And wipe the layer of dust on that honking bus
That always scares me, maybe from a lifetime past.

People come and people go
Almost like whispers, where do we end?
Time is wonderful and cruel as it pierces
We walk the distance, to meet
Then again and again.
A tight rope, unending knots.
My skin is soft and red from its hold.

Memory extends beyond the mind.
I remember the palaces I have touched, the sand that slips from my hand
The water I sprinkle on my plants each day.
A someone whose touch is a ghost
And hugs from a sister, oceans apart.

Time and space cease to exist.
I am, and because I am
My life plays in front of me.
All at once.
Right now, I am floating in the ocean.
Nothing but the sea and sun all over me.

No one can reach me now.

~insight07

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Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.