Poetry Longlist 2018, Aakriti Bhatia

Companion

Sitting there at the coffee table
She’s fatter
Than the first time
I laid eyes on her
As if she’s made
More space within herself
To accommodate me.

This book, that got me through
The first signs of heartbreak
The one that accompanied me
In adventures, big and small.

It made place
For my thoughts
Within its pages
Captured each feeling
Deep within its very spine
Held the smell
Of my favourite espresso
And the touch
Of hurried fingers,
Trying to get
To the next chapter.

It got
Fatter and fatter
With each time
i picked it up
Picking me up
Along the way.
And now
As I leave it
On this coffee table
In this vast library
It holds these parts of me
While making space
For the next
Set of hands.