True Twilight
written by: Kushal Poddar
@Kushalpoe
Part I
Dogs share no warmth with me.
I especially avoid our own alley
after seven in the evening.
The dog we nicknamed Kujo
rules the strays. Some nights
its maw slavers my sleep.
I read. I read verses and prose
loved by a niche, but this Monday
I hook up with Fairy Tale by King.
Tuesday sinks in the book. On
Wednesday while returning,
frightened, regretful, late from a soiree
a shadow, I feel, sniffs my trousers
rubs past fast without growling.
A moment I see the eyes,
in the next nothing. True tale, I whisper,
“Will this end a lifelong dread?
Or is it because I forgot that I am dead?”
Part II
Someone burns something,
always, in this city.
I breathe in; my lungs grow large
and heart goes petite.
In our balcony night arrives
wearing orange,
fresh, disheveled, worn out
before the beginning.
By the street, on the pavement
an ironing man
heats up his mettle
on an old-fashioned coal stove.
Here we evolve and we standstill.
Your shadow crosses the meadow
stripped-bare between the concrete.
I breathe in.
My throat reminds me of my mother
struggling to end her life.
- True Twilight - November 10, 2023
- An Ode to Nothingness - April 4, 2023
- After The Burial - October 6, 2021
