Saturday, 10 August 2013

Poetry 2013 Longlist, Aniesha Brahma

Hero

Rain.
It falls down, relentlessly.
And I stand. Stand alone.
Looking into space.
Into the beyond.
A foot outside.
Waving temptingly, in nothing.
Should I jump now?
Dressed in white,
Beauty of another kind.
Smiling.
I'll go into the next world.
So tired of this one.
Because I'm tired of always,
Always having to answer.
Always having to decide.
Forced to go against my wishes,
Because I am forever thinking
Of what I've done "wrong".
Or what others consider to be wrong.
Arm, now outstretched.
I'm smiling.
Soon,
all this will be behind me.
I'll jump to my ecstasy.
The other foot is about to join,
the one already suspended.
When someone comes along,
and pulls me by the waist.
"Don't give up yet," he whispers
in my ear, "I'm just around the corner."
I close my eyes,
Feeling the tight embrace, and warm
breath on the my neck.
Sweet sound that rings next to my ear,
One which I'd not heard
For so long.
"What is left to live for?" I ask, "Why
do you keep coming back - everytime I decide
to bring things to an end?
Why do you force me to chase pavements?"
"You're not crazy, though you love
to believe otherwise.
You're still a wonderful person.
Stop believing in their lies." And for a minute,
I can almost feel,
the lips pressed to my rain-kissed skin.
And as I take a step back,
his shadowy memory is gone.
I back away from the edge,
From where I'd have happily jumped.
Down to the depths of an unknown,
forbidden leisure.
"You'll always be my hero," I whisper,
"You'll always save me - even from myself."
Though you're nothing but a figment
of my own memory,
You're still the one who rescues me.
When I can't even save myself.

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