A Comic Calamity

By Sudhalekshmi M

At the age of 15,

being in love seemed

too cinematic and foreign

a notion that

by the time

love arrived,

I had hoped

to have painted fingernails,

pointed heels,

Rapunzel like hair

and a perfect set of white teeth.

But, love arrived

on a rainy morning,

just like my favourite

"Sarah Kay- Phil Kaye" poem

had hinted;

Love came out of the blue

and I was an introvert

with sweaty palms and social anxiety.

But, love made me feel home,

with a glass jar of summer memories

that he brought with him,

the golden afternoons,

the sliced raw mangoes,

the fragrance of summer rain touching the earth,

the happy memories,

the comforting power cuts!

Beneath the bulbs

that went off in the thunder and lightning,

he hissed on my ear

and I nudged him for his manners,

he whispered an I love you

and I dismissed it a joke.

He laughed.

He kept reminding me that

I was afraid of the darkness,

but I boasted a no,

not at all

in the space where I know by heart,

I replied!

The silence after the rain.

The darkness.

Rain again.

Thud!

The glass jar broke.

Amma swept it off the floor.

Ah my heart!

Heartbreak? I asked my heart.

A comic calamity, she replied

and went on with her business!

By Sudhalekshmi M