Like the stench of day-old cigarette smoke lingering on a black ruffled top.
Like the fine strands of flyaway hair sticking to a cold, bare floor.
Like the last dregs of coffee coating the insides of an indigo blue mug.
Like the echoes of an endless white night at the edge of land's end.
You overstay your welcome, haunting these walls that haven't witnessed a living breath since the night we first died... together but unhinged.
Like rebellious liquid you flow into spaces outside my reach.
Like passing breeze you caress my naked fingers clinging to the rusty railing—chilled to the bone, hard as nails.
Like inevitable twilight you cast a spell over my abandoned lips, ripe with the memory of old love, drained of fresh blood and of fresh dreams.
The words that you uttered everywhere—looking out of the window, leaning against the couch, lying on your back in bed, standing out on the deck, sitting inside moving wheels, climbing the steps carved into ancient rocks, walking down the promenade, wedged into tiny tables and chairs surrounded by a lifetime of memories—they all leap out at me at unsuspecting intervals.
Your dark, dancing eyes with even darker secrets. The one thing you barely let slip out. The million more you hid. The things you said with someone else still inside you. The tears you angrily banished. The pain you used to brush onto these empty walls. The dying embers of the flames you had once ignited....
I can feel it all weighing me down now.
Here, inside these cold waters that have now become my permanent residence.
And I still haven't learned how to swim.
Like the fine strands of flyaway hair sticking to a cold, bare floor.
Like the last dregs of coffee coating the insides of an indigo blue mug.
Like the echoes of an endless white night at the edge of land's end.
You overstay your welcome, haunting these walls that haven't witnessed a living breath since the night we first died... together but unhinged.
Like rebellious liquid you flow into spaces outside my reach.
Like passing breeze you caress my naked fingers clinging to the rusty railing—chilled to the bone, hard as nails.
Like inevitable twilight you cast a spell over my abandoned lips, ripe with the memory of old love, drained of fresh blood and of fresh dreams.
The words that you uttered everywhere—looking out of the window, leaning against the couch, lying on your back in bed, standing out on the deck, sitting inside moving wheels, climbing the steps carved into ancient rocks, walking down the promenade, wedged into tiny tables and chairs surrounded by a lifetime of memories—they all leap out at me at unsuspecting intervals.
Your dark, dancing eyes with even darker secrets. The one thing you barely let slip out. The million more you hid. The things you said with someone else still inside you. The tears you angrily banished. The pain you used to brush onto these empty walls. The dying embers of the flames you had once ignited....
I can feel it all weighing me down now.
Here, inside these cold waters that have now become my permanent residence.
And I still haven't learned how to swim.
2 comments:
Wonderfully crafted. Loved every bit of it and read it again. Good one CC.
Thank you, Himanshu. For the appreciation, and also for being my sole reader 😃
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