Learnings Post Inescapable Running

By Aarti Kukreja

A little away from it all,

An observer with a shimmering light

I'm walking through the ghastly forest

No people, but still making my way

Barefoot and skimped

A wavered mirror reflecting my path

And a butcher waiting to trap animal-echoes

The only thought in my head

Is that of the ruthlessly beautiful end.

A place I know I belong

Million grains of sand being a push-over

To the cleansing waters

A brown polka-dotted plateau

And the universal liquid falling from heavens

I reached.

I gasped.

I died only to live more.

I fell down.

I smelt.

I fell in love.

And in an instant,

I grew.

Never to escape my fears.

But unravel my curbing.

The seas winked at me,

And the beach locked my feet;

Especially my toes,

To my roots.

I sat up and looked around.

I was in the city,

Didn't belong.

I was with someone in bed,

I looked at him.

Smiled.

But I was gone.

Didn't belong.

Can't be alone if you are with someone.

So a race to the island that made me high.

An aloneness I didn't want to give up.

A loneliness that I married.

And a glass of milk I never forgot to drink.

Flashes, flasks, masks, exhaustion.

Claps, guns, flights, heels and potency.

Funny how I reached wearing beige shorts,

With a sandwich in my hand.

A cap worn the wrong way

With my life ahead of the oceans.

Alone, content and never unfree.

Deathless, insensitive and untouchable.

Irony of it all,

It was forever and ever.

By Aarti Kukreja