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Silences

Writer: Mehr WaliaMehr Walia

the somber synonyms of sea

make the insides of a shell hush with words

in the pearled mother tongue of the moving water

I cup my ears over the wood and it sounds like a fret train running through my brain

at 12:34 am


silences play hide and seek with me

fool around in meadows

distance measured in rows of

identical dancing dandelions

distance pools endless possibilities

the proximity

like stung plump by a bee

makes my lips

tremble with the thoughts of tranquility


I seek only silences

and they playfully hide away from me

questions ground in a mortar

coarse powdery

like plaster of Paris

mixed with water

science's feeble try to mend broken bones

set out in the air, getting dry by the second

asking for the reverberation of my reasons


for me, I have shards of glasses

fitted down my throat

that hurt and cluster

on angles of light, I don't understand

like a kaleidoscope with blood clots inside

instead of twinkles and twilight

mom interrupts with a cup of warm ginger tea

she's sweet and my throat feels better already


but the time is up

'why can you not be more like her'

'why can you not at least smile'

'why would you spill the tea down the sink-

it's always too bitter or too sugary but -

but what did you do make of all the things in life

it decays and decays

on my skin and on my mind

like a picture of Dorian Gray

silences turn into sin


when the whole country is left tired to the bone

sucked dry of life,

it's a coup -

brewing in the secrecy of late-night cafés

that extends a hail and leads a turn of events

without further questions


so I light my candles

warm yellow

and borrow papa's music vinyls

old mellow

make one of those elaborate plans I say

there's an abandoned house

by the end of the street

dense and sweet

humbly covered in milkweed

so tear out pages of poetry and carry them in the underpocket of your trench coat

pretend we have our own dead poet's society


hold hands and I'll show you

how we've been fitting the wrong key

silences but shared

share only silences

take a moment to sip more of that

while I find a new hiding place for me

now rush

put on your mask

I'm five steps to the right of the olive branch tree

come find me.


Painting by: Romina Basu




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