Skip to main content

Open, close

When we're happy, the sun seems to shine
Reflecting the joy in my eyes.
Then, there's a smile on my lips
My face is open, welcoming
I look young, I feel young
I love the wind in my hair
Our child gurgling makes my heart melt
A glimpse of your tall presence
A look from you, and my heart races
All, literally, is well with the world

When we hurl words like missiles
The hurt scores deep
I close up, I want to curl up
No I want to throw the hurt back
And I do. Oh, how well I do it!
I know I'm closed then
My face feels tight, head aches
I look a hundred years old
I don't want to see you
No, I don't care what happens to you.

What is it we do to each other then?
Do I start this? Or is it that infernal other being?
Pride. Ego. Then where is love?
That too takes its time to appear.
And it does, but so agonisingly slowly.

Meanwhile the world is what it always is
It is I and you who change.
It is I and you who open up sometimes
Or close out each other, at others.

Comments

Drifting said…
hey! Quite liked this one :) Meli
12:05 pm, October 23, 2011
Divya Sreedharan said…
Meli, so sorry I never replied to your comment. Thank you. I always find writing very cathartic. And confession time--saw what you said just now, two years later, gosh!
9:41 am, July 11, 2013
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hooked

I think I'm hooked. Totally and absolutely Booked. I've got it real bad And that's kinda sad. Shopping was never my thing It didn't give me a zing. Problem is, this is so easy Sounds darn cheesy. But when I spot a deal Half-price, what a steal! It's like I'm manic Some kind of panic. No time to ponder, or reflect Here goes nothing, what the heck! First I click on buy Then I go, oh my! For I've done it again Seen a sale, felt the pain Of being afflicted Totally addicted To shopping online Come rain or shine. So yeah, I'm hooked, Absolutely booked. I don't know what to do. How about you? ______________________
Post a Comment
Read more

My other uterus

Read the other day about an American woman who had twins. Nothing exceptional in that, except that she has a condition called uterus didelphys, a rare congenital phenomenon where the uterus comprises not one, but two cavities or two separate uteruses. Basically, the babies grew in the two uterii. Okay so what, you think. Well, I have two uteruses (or uterii, or whatever), too. And I just had a baby. My baby grew in my right uterus, so the left one was empty. But it kinda made way as the right one expanded over a period of nine months. So did my stomach stick out on one side? Nope. It looked like every other pregnant woman's tummy. It was only different on the inside. This uterus didelphys is a tricky thing. Doctors will tell you that conception is well nigh impossible with this condition. That you need fertility treatment, IVF, pill-popping, all the very best medical science can offer. And of course, if you also have poly cystic ovaries like I do, things look even worse. But gues
3 comments
Read more

Salted Cashews (my short story from the Elle-Tranquebar Book of Short Stories published in May 2013)

“ Maalu, Maalu”, where are you? Come quickly, the cashews are nearly done.” In my house, someone is always telling me what to do. But this is different. I love watching cashews go “pop”. I run down the stairs towards our soot-encrusted cheriya adukala . Chechi straightens up. She’d been stirring a bubbling aluminium vessal of rice. There’s a wood-fired stove next to the rice. It’s filled with slow-burning coconut husk and what looks like little black smoking pieces of coal. She takes a stick and turns the ‘coals’ over. There’s a slight spice in the air, wonderfully fragrant nut oil. “Oh chechi , why didn’t you call me earlier, the cashew nuts are already roasted fully,” I wail. Chechi smiles. My little spurt of anger melts away and I take the stick from her. I give the nuts an extra ‘poke’. The cashews are coarsely blackened. She digs them out for me and carefully peels away the crusty skin. Steaming or no, who cares. I crunch on them happily. Chechi is not really
Post a Comment
Read more