“Embracing me” – Nayana Nair

On my closed hopeless eyes
you placed your lips
and something in me broke open.
And I burst from within,
from all my prisons.
From all my pseudo homes
I heard myself crying.

I heard the the noises of television
in the heavy air of my living room
die out, I heard myself breathe.
I heard the knocks on my door
and found all my lost selves
staring at me one second,
embracing me the next.

They told me
it could be the blue moon,
it could be the cyclone that is running wild,
it could be the end of earth predicted too many times,
it could be flowers-that-no-one-loves blooming in our land,
it could my restlessness and fear of being left behind,
it could be you.

As you sink into the couch,
forgetting the nail you painted seconds before,
as you look around frantically for remote,
as you leave the evidence of beautiful color
on my skin,
I realized,
that I found in myself the honesty to say out aloud,
to tell you, to accept that it is probably you.

“Wedding Photos” – Nayana Nair

It was like magic
running the highlighter, the bright crayon
over the sepia hands of her.
She didn’t complain or cry
as we ruined another photograph of hers,
as we tried to hide the evidence
of her failed love, our failing life.

We cut her out, moved her away
from the one who looked like us.
We placed her side of story, her half of heart
in the albums.
Albums that felt lighter
now that the responsibility
to remember only the good, its difficulty
was no longer our business.

We shredded few faces of his,
few others we drowned in ink.
His face was the reason we couldn’t look at ourselves,
the reasons of all the hurting words
we learned so fast.

After we ruined everything for good
we stared at each other,
and saw the tears we should’t be having in us.
This wasn’t how magic is supposed to feel.
Why?
Why was there no thrill, no relief in what we had done?
Isn’t it our turn to be free from the one who left?

“Becoming This Person” – Nayana Nair

. When the pain hits my face
.                                                                 (those hands used to the have the softest touch)
. my skin would have broken up in the ugliest ways,
.                               if the same hands wouldn’t have rushed
.                               to cradle the crying me
.                                             without losing a second.

.                                                         The pain was gone as soon as it came.
.                           This skin has a way of healing
.                            that seems to me as
.                                                an unfaithfulness,
.                                                a betrayal.
.       As if, even my body
.       didn’t want to leave any evidence
.                           that could justify my tears and my mistrust.

. I have again invited the pain, the consequence
. of being “broken too many times”.
.                                                    The word “broken”
.                                                               seems like a shiny ornament
.                                                               that is meant to distract my eyes,
.                                                                                                                                 my eyes
.                                                                                      that are anyway not capable
.                                                                    of seeing things for what they are.

. I no longer trust my mind
.                            that doesn’t know
.                                            the reason for the anger (that I awakened in others),
.                                            the disappointments
.                                                      written in neon lights on the darkening faces,
.                                            that doesn’t have any account of how I ended up becoming
.     a person
.                            this bad,           this wrong,                 this fragile,                 this cruel.

“All I Can Do” – Nayana Nair

If all I can do
is to write up my pain
that will fill itself every morning again.
And hide the evidence of my weakness
on pages
that burn with longing for the fading ink,
the ink that longs to see
those eyes from whom they were meant to hide.
Then I am just moving my feelings
from one dark cage to another.
They continue to grasp for air,
even if the hands that choke them have changed.