The clamour of footsteps
and raindrops.
Buzzing television sets
and distant prayer calls.
Brain teeming over
with emotion; A break –
a pause – mind on holiday.
Numbness.
Car engines sound
like guitar strings scratching
against chipped nails.
But softer – calmer –
now they purr like kittens…
Red, green, blue –
quietly dissolving into a hazy swirl
– colourless.
The smell of coffee and cinnamon –
strawberries and pickles.
The emotion eases,
Heart floating now –
lighter, devoid of a burden.
Anger fading into a song
and a dance image –
With lampposts and Audrey Hepburn.
Yellow umbrellas floating,
Smile easier to pull out –
Mechanical – almost gruesome.
Like cement laid down
in pasty blocks under the sun.
Numbness wearing off –
The cars are noisy and annoying again.
Pic credit: Aryaman M Parashar
Rhea Dhanbhoora has been writing since childhood, has published a book of poems (Poetry Through Time, published by English Edition in 2003) and is currently a Literature student, writing features as part of a full-time job. She can’t imagine a life without writing and one day hopes to be able to live and breathe off the words, preferably in an idyllic country setting somewhere. Food, music, reading and travel are high up there on the list of things she loves reading and writing about. Writing to her is, like life itself, an adventure – a journey to find her place, to define and redefine who she is over and over again and to live and learn through the process.