Itch

These days, I do not have the patience to read
Or watch or breathe or be.
There is an itch to understand and be understood
But I can’t write anymore or talk anymore or breathe anymore,
Atleast not on my terms.
For inspiration, I look at the tiny ants that crawl all over my desk, my legs and thighs
Honestly, at this point I don’t even mind their bite.
Flowers are pink and the rain has been pouring endlessly
June onwards it is supposed to be the season of rain
My ma tells me everything is a phase, even this so called pain.
Day after day, I feel more caged in my windows and ribs.
An existence that over months just cribs.
Tiny birds fly in flocks in the endless blue
I don’t see bombs but arrows criss cross the horizon, is this a lie or the truth?
I sit with the bowl of my mind in my hands, knees close to my chin
My fingers remain the same, even if I lose to gain and become thin.
People float like burning money on a candle
A flame that hurts, a flame that blames for all the wrongs that one can handle.
This rhyme is sickening, I don’t want to eat.
I look at ants collect morsels of insects from beneath my seat.
There are too many mosquitoes, I tell ma
An itch on my skin that turns red and red and red
Over and over again.
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~insight07
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Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.

Frailty

The frailty of a dark night
A leaf holding its green as it droops to the human touch
A pluck and it’s over.
Barks of endless trees in a crown
Over a moon that pulls the tide to robe
Its light beauty.
A lonely frail wave lulls a lonely mind to sleep
Thoughts become oceans then clouds
A reign that lasts for a few hours
Its light beauty comes down
To the leaf
To the forest.
I am where I am
A fish in a fishbowl
That could have been an ocean
That could have been a cloud-
Or maybe just a drop.
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~insight07
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Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.

Smoke and Spine

Smoke hangs midair
Like buildings, occupying forever space in the city
And we breathe, I breathe
It in.
It collects in my lungs and expands the size of a thought
Dark thought that lives within.

Stars collect at the base of my throat and
I am alive as I imagine stars and the sun
Touching every corner of the world, intimately,
Lovingly. The ocean shines, trees gush
Sunsets blush.

A world apart, a screen away
I stare at the messages from a love.
A thousand lives have crossed us as we bond in a bond
Older than civilization.
It has taken everything from me, and given me a whole new meaning
Words have changed and their essence in my being is the same.

I am different. But no different than yesterday.
My thoughts are in all colours, as I move in a living, breathing
Painting, paintings. I am art.
Maybe, a muse to someone as they sit on their sunlit balcony-
Picturing me, or a girl like me
Swimming in the dark.

My spine has dissolved into nerves
Fingers tingle, almost like a tickle.
Can you look and understand?
Maybe, I don’t understand things anymore.

But, no matter what
I am here, I am here.
And that is all that matters for now.

~insight07

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Copyright ©Devika Todi. All rights reserved.

Suspended Time

Black butterflies with wispy wings and a tail of light
Fly
I don’t know if they exist or not
But I often see them through the corner of my eyes
A missed vision but something I catch
Almost.
As imagined as islands on seas and
Trucks alone in nights so lonely.
I can almost believe that the Earth does not rotate and a
Sunrise is not on its way because you see,
The universe is listening to me.
Even if the clock, the only real sound in the world
Ticks away, time is still
Hanging like a loose cloud in the sky
Suspended
Because for one blue Saturday morning
I wanted a few hours only to be mine.
Not to my fears, lies, aging body and intestines
But a little smile, and little sunshine of my own.
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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.