Alone-I

She fears living alone
Timmy is asleep
She types for endless hours seeking pink hearts
And she gets it too like dew-drops on a sun-kissed morning
She looks for love everywhere, outside and inside
But there remains a dried up ‘lonely well’ which is as it is once you see it
as it is
The grey scars brush its grey paint all over
Smothering all inch
She fights to remain unpainted, untainted
But she sees
a crow sits by the loneliness. It caws its way to her heart
She takes a mirror and looks
Crystal clear. Pristine.
But those grey smothering paint strokes that she felt being painted!
Timmy comes running
She strokes his head
And takes him out to play

Alone-II

The grey is real, she thinks
It is clawing out her red, day by day
She lights a candle and keeps it next to the paper-weight on her desk
She picks up the phone and dials all the people she loves. Likes.
Hello.
She asks for more red. She gets it.
At the end of the hour long call, she is more red than ever
She sits back watching the stars and the moon dance in harmony
The clouds float gently
She takes the newspaper and reads the headline
When she feels a yearn
She knows that ‘it’ is coming back
She tries to fight it out
but she finally gives in
She lets herself be painted with broad brush strokes
She goes inside. Blows off the candle
And clutching her bedsheet. She lies.
She counts back
10, 9, 8, 7, ……

Alone-III

The beach is huge
Endless stretches of sand bordered by tall palms
The water is blue
You could even see the fishes in this water
Baby crabs flirting with small shells
Swarms of fish moving in erratic direction
And Sreeja, with her hair left open, walking by alone
The sun is gentle in its embrace
Droves of sea-gulls fly by
The painter could have been ready with her canvas
Sreeja finds a shack on the beach
She wants to have her mojito in this shack
Her walk has been tiring and the beauty overwhelming
She checks her watch and walks in
“One mojito please”, Sreeja asks
“Only alcohol available here, ma’am” says the bartender
She comes out
Fists clenched and brows squeezed
She calms down in a moment
A tear escapes her eye
She heaves a smile
And walks toward the ocean
Up above, the sea-gulls continue to fly by in droves
and the fishes go on with their seemingly random movements