rain

My hair is wet

Like I've just showered

But it's just sweat

The sun vengeful today

The rainbirds sing

And I hope for rain

Their cries as they fly past

A false promise, I learn soon

I wait for rain

Like the parched earth during drought

I wait for you

Like a kingfisher watches its prey

Typos

One fine day

two keys on my laptop

the troublesome @

and the much used "

decided to switch places

After a few days

and a lot of cursing

my left middle finger

reached for the 2/@ key

to open and close quotes

and my right pinkie

reached for the '/" key

when typing an email address

And now

the troublesome @

and the much used "

have gone back to their

designated places

allowing me to type

exactly what's stamped on the

tiny grey keys

All of yesterday and the day before

I opened and closed quotes with an @

and typed quotation marks in

my emails

Today

everything is back to normal

I don't have to think twice before reaching for a

key

I don't find myself muttering expletives

or having to retype anything

How easily things change

and then go back to the way they were

our brains rewiring and adapting

over and over again

Hands touching hands

You make me want

I want to feel you next to me

Your skin against mine

Legs intertwined

No space between us

You make me want

In your giving and my wanting

There is an urgency, a hunger

It leaves us breathless

Eyes closed, chests beating, hands wandering

You make me want

Not more

Not less

This exact amount of

Needing and not needing

Scratches

Minor pleasures we gain from

Minor inflictions

Not deep purple bruises

Or gushing wounds

Mere scratches

That you mayn't even notice

Until the lime you cut

For a sambol

Stings

Minor inflictions, we tell ourselves

Don't matter

Won't leave a scar

Guilty pleasures, these are

We wouldn't even admit

But it's true, isn't

Guilty of it, I am

Just as you are

Look at us,

Hurting each other

For some fleeting pleasure

Termites

You'll find yourself

One day being thankful

Or even pleased of

The life carved for yourself 

Out of wood left for the

Termites

It's all good,

You'll be telling

Yourself 

It's all good.

forget me (not)

twice this month

i have forgotten we are now strangers

something small online

making me want to talk to you

a mutual friend (though i guess

i can't call them this anymore)

or something you liked (do you

still like the same things?)

this world we live in now

apart

is so quiet

so still

lonely, even

love

how fickle the heart is

flitting from one love to another

as if yesterday's love didn't have us

aching for more

but today, our heart blooms

for another

and tomorrow, a different palm will

rest against ours

a different heart

making ours beat faster

stay

"Stay"

I want to tell you

As your arms wrap around me

But our goodbyes are wordless

And so, we are both silent

I wonder,

Quite often,

What if I ask

What would you say?

Would you stay?

Reunion

The death knell sounds from the house opposite ours

A life that has been withering away has finally breathed its last

And someone from the past resurfaces, taking unsure steps

Towards a present we don't know each other in

Arrack warms our bones, fills our laughter with an added something

Joy, I think to myself, happiness, love, friendship

The ease of it takes me by surprise, but then, some things are just easy, aren't they?

And outside, the rain falls and falls, the wind is cold, the skies grey

And beyond, lives come together, part ways, reunite, bid farewell

And you and I? What of us?

Does it even matter?

Mind tricks

When I am so very tired

And I've stayed up far too long

My mind plays tricks on me

I see things that aren't there

A mouse scurries across a counter

Mosquitoes dart this way and that

Roaches run on the floor

Ants scattered on a wall

Your body warm against mine

Arm pulling me closer to you

Kindness in your words

Affection in your touch