ManicWorld Magazine

Limbs extended
Reality delayed
Gilt-framed scenes set
In stone for another year

It was in the summer I sat
With his head on my lap
We ate strawberries and counted
All the clouds

Absorbed and
Basking in the present
No luggage or delay only
Stupid sandals and flimsy hats
Lingering as the sun set low
Barely moving
Parked in parks or
Just outside the door.
Priorities faded
Pressures dissuaded
From the mind and body and
All of the ether

Adulting lay far far far far far ahead
With no inkling of
—–struggle—–
Ignorance a keen exchange for bliss
Raw and improper
How we scuttled along
No clue or inkling
Thereof
Incomprehensible the forthcoming
Emotional losses and physical voids
The raw pain and paths
Carved out of tears.
Fraught days and nights

Placebos and plastered smiles
Gave way to a new way
That of tentative steps forged in steel.

Even when I bring back the
Summer haze
Vivid and verdant
Lazed days
With our battle scars
Hard-won and etched,
I prefer the eroded
and strengthened
Us Now.