Lasting Hours

Speak in silence so that we are never misunderstood.

Lasting Hours
By: Akhilesh Agarwal

Tell me your every thought and we will bury them in these walls
This world can never see us or hear us talk
We will speak in the language of water
So that our words flow away with every syllable
We will huddle under the arches when it pours
And dissolve the truth in the muddy waters

We will claw at them, tear apart every brick together
And when we can’t find our words, we can’t find ourselves
We will lie silent in the tombs we build of empty bricks
And enshrine our ground to a brand new glory.

Skin Deep

'The only heaven I will be sent to is when I am alone with you.' ~Take Me To Church, Hozier
Skin Deep
By: Akhilesh Agarwal

I was not an irony when I said touch me
When I looked at you, you know me
It was reality when I yearned for your touch
Instead of being haphephobic

I interlock my arms into a shape
I think would fit around your waist
You don’t dare, you say
I say touch me

I am a stripped sky
Let your fingers trace all the clouds
Let the sparks form the stars
I could hold your lush within me
My back has a valley and face plateaus
These freckles are your directions
Reach deeper than I allow
And take all my parts to keep
When you, someday, touch me.

Earnest

'Be careful, you are not in wonderland. I have heard the strange madness long growing in your soul but you are fortunate in your ignorance, your isolation. You, who have suffered, find where love hides, give, share, lose, 'lest we die unbloomed.' ~Kill Your Darlings
Earnest
By: Akhilesh Agarwal

Father, these bones have aged
Even though the world is not as nearly as cruel
As it was to you, oh dear father
These bones are done, as they kneel in your presence
I close my eyes, heave a sigh
Asking you to take me home and sing to me
Like you used to when I was born in winter
With the crush of leaves, your wrinkled eyes
Smiled the widest when I held your heart
You held me like I was china, I loved you
I love you, father. Come back and forgive me
For I got exhausted so early
This world may be an unforgettable melody
But it is your every breath that is music to me.

Burnt Shades

Whatever happens, I hope we always find our way back to each other. 

Burnt Shades

By: Akhilesh Agarwal

Lover, where have you been?

I have been waiting, below this sky green

My thoughts wander, I lose you sometimes

You go out of my meanderings, you remain

In this heart, in this vision, in these hopes

Come back, I can’t take the pain

I come back to you with every breath I take

I come back to you because of every word you said

Lover, is it beautiful where you are?

Is it as warm and familiar as the skin of my palm?

It has been so long, my skin is dry and taut now

The crooks in my shoulders don’t feel quite right

The shape of my toes don’t feel quite right either

Lover, maybe I need you to see myself

Do this at least, come back a moment

And whisper to me, you are disappearing.  

Like A Cat, It Meows Too

'When that old river runs past your eyes/ To wash off the dirt on the riverside/ Go to the water so very near/ The river will be your eyes and ears.' ~ Riverside, Agnes Obels
Like A Cat, It Meows Too
By: Akhilesh Agarwal

You rolled off the mountain
In parts and pieces, in beats and kisses
You held at your dangling weeds
And hoped they would keep you from falling

You were a storm’s child, a waking
of a new era, a message of beauty
You were mine, to keep and cherish
But the cold, it broke your heart

You were an epiphany of a night
To be forgotten by the day
You were musings of my unbounded spirit
Sleeping by the door.

Thread Tale

'It's the real world, full of gaps and inconsistencies and anticlimaxes.' ~Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Thread Tale
By: Akhilesh Agarwal

It was her world, the one she was knitting
With threads and needles
Spectacles and seasons
It was made of red and blue threads
Surrounding the yellow at the core
It was knitted in a perfect ball
Not like flattened imperfection of this world

You see, it was her world, the one she was knitting
And it was made of fingers and nails
That had touched them at all places
She knit them all day and night
She knit them close, she knit them tight
She hummed a tune that reminded the threads
It was life giving life, so not to fear otherwise.

It was her world, the one she was knitting
That she bounced around the room, to and fro
She didn’t hate the world, the one she was breathing
Because at least it never left a thread behind on the floor.

Gravity

Everybody needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. ~Richard Siken
Gravity
By: Akhilesh Agarwal

The whole world has fallen asleep
Like a tired sack dissolving in ground’s feet
The dogs have hung up their coats
And stopped barking for silence to come home
The ocean rests its tired arms
Under the glow of moonlight that has to go
But I stay up reading the letters I wrote
To you, who has gone beyond a postal code.

I have found my gravity in memories
Embodiment of nostalgia, or is it something more?
Should I move ahead to the void that stretches far beneath
Or fall back to the cushion of a time that hollows back ago?
I do not know.

I could ask you, send you danger flares of red
Does heaven provide a benefit of one rescue operation?
Because the problem is that the world has fallen asleep
And I have no ground to dissolve into.