“Putting myself to sleep” – Nayana Nair

Every night
as you sleep,
I fold myself up
into someone I used to be.
I try to fit into the space beside you
where no longer fit.

But your warmth
now only brings me tears.
I wish it didn’t.
Even though I stopped wanting you,
I don’t think I stopped loving you.
I wish I didn’t.
I know I will give you up someday
but till then
I wanted to gift you few more days-
few more days of ignorance.
You will probably sleep through them
not knowing how much I must have loved you
to stay beside, you even when you were not watching,
withstanding my pain as long as possible.

The night grows deeper,
your sleep lasts longer,
my cries become louder,
but there is no one for me,
no one to care, if I cry.

Please wake up
and see my tears
before I can hide them.
Put me to sleep,
please love me back,
love me again,
before I give up on you.

“No one is looking” – Nayana Nair

This bed is too small for me
and life pouring inside me,
through the small crack in the window,
is not enough to hold me here.
I hear the names of people
whom I will never meet or know.
No one is looking for me
just as I wanted.
But still it makes me sad
to be forgotten so easily.

“Crises” – Nayana Nair

The small crises
of my day-to-day life that
seem like disaster,
were nothing more than
my heart rebelling against my heart.
Of me fighting myself,
Of me looking at myself,
mocking at myself,
crying with myself.
Of accepting the solitude I had subjected myself to.
Of not knowing a way out of it.
Of thinking that if I could be miserable enough
someone might rescue me.
And finally accepting the life
I have shared with no one else
but me.

“What you’ve hidden” – Nayana Nair

In the books
that you’ve hidden
at the bottom of boxes
that no one looks through.
In the words that
have not seen the light of your eyes
for a time, long enough to be called forever.
In those books and words,
I know I will find a part of you
that was once not affected by world,
the part that embarasses you most,
the part that is most beautiful,
the part I want to love.

“I want you to lie” – Nayana Nair

Remember the flowers
with nameless existence
and the shade of kindness
in which we found hope
in our self
and in this world.
Remember why
we forgot sometimes
where we are headed.
Because we had nothing to find,
nothing to gain,
no one to wait for us
at the end of this road.
But now that we are here.
Now that you have finally reached your home.
I want you to turn around
I want you to lie.
I want you to say
that probably we are lost.