The Best Lines

By Ipsita Banerjee

The best lines are all taken,

so I make do with the ones left behind

re-inventing myself out of rejects,

living my life kicking at daylight

till darkness bleeds in.

I thought I lost the thread of that story

so I searched for it, crawling on all fours

looking underneath unmade beds

peering over edges and corners

unexplored by the broom.

What is that you carry in your mouth?

it smells of death, the poison seeping

into my clothes, like cigarette smoke

curling from fingers that lean

casually against mine, not quite touching.

like our lives: lived together but more apart

than as one. Is this how it ends then? In tangled

threads? Will we walk each other?

matching our footsteps as the tide carries us,

pulling on leashes we cannot see

while all along the journey

it is clear that the places I want to go

are all behind me. You see, all along,

I have been calling out directions

holding the map upside down.

By Ipsita Banerjee