Tag: Free verse

Posted in Life and After, Random Thoughts

Something

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Scared by the darkness,

She looked back. Nothing.

Something told her, her shadow wasn’t following.

.

She couldn’t be sure–

It was too dark.

Surely she would know if her shadow was still her part…

.

She would feel it

Sticking to her shoe…

Certainly there would be something…a slight cue?

.

Unknown, unreasonable,

Fear crept in.

Panic filled up empty crevices within.

.

She rushed back

To the streak of light.

Her shadow was there the other night.

.

Travellers swear,

In car headlight,

A phantom dives under their speeding cars. Every night…

Author’s note: Some people working in graveyard shift in Gurgaon back in 2014 used to say that a phantom woman would dive under their car’s front wheels. Every night. Scary! 😨

Posted in Random Thoughts

Mail

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

I open mail and I see

my bank trying to reach me

offering a loan I didn’t ask for.

Then there are recruiters

mailing me

on a 10 year-old resume

offering me a job

that I needed when

I was still growing teeth.

People are begging me

to take half of their bank account

to get them out of their country.

I have won competitions

I didn’t enter,

and I have won enough lotteries

to make jealous the Arab emporer.

And then, there are

WordPress notices,

and subscription mails from world over…

What I sought and didn’t find

was a single mail

seeking me as a person

(not as a user or a bank account).

No one misses me…

Posted in Life and After

Wherever, Whenever, Forever

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

You walk across the street

holding my hand tightly,

running slightly,

avoiding the crazed traffic

thinking about the next treat.

…

I follow as fast as I can go,

giggling all over the road,

chasing the wild plans

we cooked together, all along

knowing half of them

wouldn’t come to be.

…

Not sure

where you are steering me,

nor does it matter to me,

for my hand is in yours,

in this knowledge, I am secure,

that you are with me…

…

Wherever I go,

however far I go,

in my half-cooked plans

and crazy schemes

and far-fetched dreams,

you were…

you are…

you will be with me…

Wherever, whenever, forever!

Author’s Note: For Manpreet

(For no particular reason, missing my bestie yet again)

Posted in Life and After

Dark Alley

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Moving in the traffic,

bodies pressed tight

in the train subway.

She returned home after

surviving another day.

…

Refusing to take from the good,

hungry in a world full of food,

wondering how she could get used

to the gnawing pain.

…

Her steps were slow

as she walked down the row

of alleys dark and dreary

in a blacked out haze.

A hand shot at her

out of a dark corner

and dragged her away.

…

The next day the priest

said last words on a grave,

“We lost a good man there.”

“Yeah, he was good,”

she smacked her lips,

looking in dark streets

for her next prey.