I Saw a Tshirt and You Paid a Visit

By Shelly Debbarma

i saw a t-shirt and you paid a visit

thoughts of you are you now.

what is that tingling pain-

that browsed and stopped in the heart?

the same way i browsed and stopped on the t-shirt

the same way time browsed and stopped on your life

the same way time browsed and stopped your life.

the back of an autorickshaw spelt your name

in the afternoon while coming home,

today was the day i wrote 'died'

today was the day i wrote to someone

about that fateful/unfateful book fair day-

only a little, but a little.

it felt set in stone on the twentieth

it feels set in stone every day after the twentieth

what figure of speeches!

it is not that i deny

or that i have difficulty letting go

the black dog visited me

and armed me with these agonising rudiments,

with these broken and half-cooked lessons,

with these roads not taken.

neither is it that i wish you back

nor that i regret things.

but it seems that life was unfair

to you

as it always is

and the scales of justice of the cycle of life

would have been equipoised

-even a little bit-

if only you were granted

the remainder of your already shortened life.

By Shelly Debbarma