by Namitha Varma
(Bengaluru, India)
I inhale distress
and choke on the remains
of pain
hanging to the tonsils
from reasons long forgotten.
Heartbreaks,
bereavement,
disappointments,
failures –
they rise up in tides,
unforgiving,
unrelenting,
drowning me in their cacophonic gripe.
I disintegrate
into shards of forgotten memories
that cut into my escaping soul
and I bleed nothingness –
I open my eyes,
collect pieces of my shredded soul,
knit them together with the wisdom of ancestors unknown,
and wait for another death.