From The Quill

 I walk through a busy street in my city, Faces around me, some tense and some in a hurry. Some having conversations with a smile, A blush, a laugh or a bluff. Domes and arches, red bricked and scarred. The scorching sun over my head, Overwhelms me beyond distress. I feel like I can't breathe, not a tree in sight  Whose shades I can use to rest. Concrete highrises provide me no respite. I look up at the scarce clouds, With no sign of rains, I curse inwardly And resume my journey again. You caused this, says a voice in my head. The machines, the buildings, everything in between You can't breathe for your own deeds.  Its up to you, not me, Mother Nature screams. The rivers are drying up, water scarce The guilt hits suddenly as I enter the air conditioned building The suffocating feeling leaves me cool slowly Yet I am engulfed in another guilty inkling. In between our soggy paper straws, brown papers Expensive cars and holiday jets, Where do we draw the line Between comfort,...

 Have you given someone a character In your story, only to realise  You were not even a part of theirs? Have they been a chapter in your life? A lesson for your love? Only to realise you were invisible to them? How does it feel, Dear Shattered Heart,  To be rejected time and again,  By different people and the same circumstances? They say you keep repeating a pattern  Until you learn a lesson. If this is a pattern, it's now become my way of life  I have embraced it with grace,  That I am this character in everyone's story  Who is never significant to mention.  Sometimes hidden away in embarrassment  Sometimes, snooze till they get hurt again  Most of the time, blissfully non-existent. Do I not leave a mark? Do I not stir their hearts? Who can say, if not they who claim,  "I forgot what it felt like with you."  And me? Naive, silly, romantic as I am.  I play every conversation in my head  Like a broken record that...

Has this thought ever crossed your mind  How things would have been had you been mine? All the entangled feelings that bind Suffocate and slowly die  Would have disappeared just by  That look, when your eyes met mine. When you asked what I wanted from life  Why could I not say "For you to be mine"? You call me the bravest, yet I was not brave enough. How I wish there had been no ties,  No worldly attachments, no duties implied,  I wish I had broken the shackles  That kept me away from your shrine.  No wars would keep our love apart;  That was all I wanted for us.  But I was not brave enough.  I know you would not feel the same.  "Dreams are like the past", you once said,  "Always perfect, always happy, how easily  We unsee the unjust, unpleasant, unruly." Perhaps your divine intervention was true  For all I remember from the past  Is the day I met you. Not a war won, nor a throne, nor praises  But your ...

 It's been years since I saw your smile  The one that used to reach your eyes.  Innocent questions amused me As you would stare at me scornfully.  Today you asked me if you were brave, Oh, how could I ever tell you,  You are the bravest I have ever met. Yes, you do not yield my sword  Yes, you don't fight for the cause  Not in the traditional way. But you, My Queen, have left your throne  All the palace and adornments alone  Just to be my strength in war. Who is as brave as you, my guiding star? Yes, you pray in fear, I know.  But with each prayer, a belief in me grows  I want to win, I want to prove  Your pride in me is not vanity or untrue. You who has a hold on me,  The king, the leader and the braveheart on the battlefield  And you say you aren't braver than me? One look from you, one wish that escapes your lips  Are my purpose, prayers and peace. A storm you surged in a lovelorn teen  Refuses to die dow...

You come home with scars and pain  Yet I know your heart never heals,  With my most skillfully made balms;  The scars of betrayal by your own  You have learnt to live with and grown,  What else could you do? Yet every time I promise to be brave  Smile through your goodbye  Trying to fight back my tears  For the sake of a title that weighs  While you ride away to the horizon  I wish I were as brave as you. You say I give you the will to come home  After every battle, big or small,  You win or lose, it doesn't matter  You will always be a hero in my eyes. But there are times when no news arrives  For days, weeks, and months  Some say the troops are moving  Others report them losing  Some say you went missing  And all I can do is pray harder  For I am not as brave as you,  To pick up the sword and lose my honour;  But am I as brave as you?  You can rise from losses and win  Yo...

 Letters that were lost in transit  Taken for unanswered questions.  People who went missing in wars, Mourned as dead, yet with flickering hope. She wished to step into the arena  Sword out to defend her cause.  She wished that she were  Brave enough to shed blood. But all she heard time and again  Was a voice in her mind as a reminder  "You are only a woman. What can you do?" "But I am the richest in the world"  "They say it's because of your father" "But I am brave." "Not like your brothers." "But I love him." "You aren't brave enough to confess." The wine spilt over the carpet.  Soaking in blood red stains  The title over her head  Loomed like a death sentence.  The cost of her life was his death,  Whom she could not mourn in public. © Suranya