How much hope is enough to walk out of grief unscathed? How long can you sit by yourself before the air of familiarity wears off? If apology were the accepted currency, How long ago did your pockets run empty? How much love is too much love? How much fear does it take to make you believe in god? if your hands could speak, how loud would they weep? How many gods have fled the sky since humans learned how to pray? is it easier to pretend that it’s nights that are lonely and not you?
if you were made a superhero, how long would it take for you to realize you also had to save yourself? Do parents love their offspring out of habit or choice? If your touch could stain people’s skin with your sufferings, can you think of a person who’d still want to hold your hand? If the heart was a person of its own, would it ever be friends with you? how many times have you mistaken your hunger for thirst and thirst for hunger? If your poems had faces, would they ever want to look into the mirror? How many backspaces does it take to erase your vulnerability? Are 26 letters enough?
If your walls could change colours according to your mood, would they ever beam yellow? How many times have you picked up a pen instead of a knife? How much of you is alive? If you could make someone love you, would you choose yourself? If you could only ever dream about people you’ve lost, would you find yourself there? If tears could pool into oceans, how long ago did you drown? If you could erase the questions you don’t want to know the answer of, will this poem always be unwritten?
Resham Sharma is a literature graduate with an earnest passion for the written word of art