The Normal Nothing

The Normal Nothing

By: Akhilesh Agarwal

Mother, when I come home,

I won’t be true, I won’t be clean

I will hold myself

With the silence in between

And mother, could you smile

For a fleeting moment

Soon enough, your son shall die

After he sees the swallows fly 

He shall kiss himself between the bridge of his nose

He shall sing himself all his favourite notes

Mother, could you feel the goodbye

Like some air sucked out of an abandoned room

He left his teardrops beneath that cabinet

Could you check and see if they have dried

Or if they still cake his face, stuffed in a bag

And you are miles away, looking away.