Just Yesterday

By Tejaswi D Shetty

Just yesterday was the first time,

I heard you speak poetically.

On our coffee table conversations,

you spilt words everywhere.

Your mouth, like a loaded gun,

triggered sonnets right into my heart.

Your tongue was restless.

So I let you borrow mine.

Just yesterday you, gathered stars.

Replaced my tears with something

that'd shine brighter in the dark.

You cursed the ocean to be calm

when I called your name.

I believed in every organ of your body,

so I didn't dig a heart out of your chest

to see where it belonged.

Instead, I poured you in as a poem than just a pain.

I held a fist full of metaphors and,

all I wanted was to heave them at your face.

On your lips, the words fade slowly.

Could you taste my love between those consonants?

Just yesterday was the last time I thought

I was a living precedent of what's dead inside.

But you walked out of your funeral, laughing.

I almost believed that I'd never die again.

I was a person who knew what to say

every time I speak a language.

But when your touch folded into a love note

and slithered into my scars, I was speechless.

You didn't tell me you forgot my name until yesterday.

I stood there watching as your bottled-up words spilt forth.

I held your hands while you cried.

Perhaps I could have shouted sentences

till they became a single word.

I should have known people grow hungry when they are distant.

The words I was supposed to hear

never collided with your tongue.

I should have questioned until

you broke into a ghost or a thief.

Instead, I stood by and,

watched you cry.

By Tejaswi D Shetty