Of Chaos, Canvases & Chitralekha by Bidisha P Kashyap she did not arrive like a guest— more like a weather pattern that the house has been waiting for. she leaves her sketches on grocery receipts, train tickets, the backs of bank envelopes — and rearranges my room with a brushstroke. hanging sighs like saris over the fan blades, pining my heartbreaks to the curtain loops, smearing her laughter into the corners of my mirror until even my shadow wore eyeliner. i tried to keep u

1. Slice open a sad guy by Ann Lilly Jose slice open a sad guy; you'll find in him a memoir, of post-valentine roses and white, vile jasmines, cursed by a tender storm—crushed / by touch. break open his ribs; you'll find in them mad men— thousands, building homes upon hibiscus deaths, forgetting the face in their baptism fonts. slide along his arms; you'll find disappointments, tinted dirty marigold—the colour of joy, stuffed and stuck in the glisten of his eye. feel his legs

My phone scoffs like Amma, Blinks twice disbelievingly- Are you planning to let go? You've aged 3 years, It's a blurred one