M,
by Ishika Dube
Let me tell you about a story you already know of,
And perhaps you humour me or you simply ask me to tell it to you,
Because you’ve always loved the way words shape my mouth.
No blockbuster starts in a rut, neither does ours,
Texas summers burnish gold over tightly tucked hair
And you stand worried, fidgeting over something or the other,
That is the first time I ever look at you.
Think a few months over and we’re the victims of
Nut allergies and lactose intolerances
And our history teacher probably hates you and me as token change,
I pull you away from her grasp in the cafeteria,
Your hands are flashes of hot, cold, hot, cold,
The worn hoodie swaddles you,
You look like you’re drowning,
In between the festering rot in our heads and trays,
I pry your eyes apart and
Make you tell me about the skies.
Stars and burnt eyes,
Dark circles and our overdue assignments,
My head has only one constant thumping drum beat,
I only bring you some coffee,
I don’t take any part of it,
They might as well call us Seraphims,
We lost all our grace to save the world once,
But for you, I might as well try.
Imagine this -
Spiraling circles and we all huff and puff and fall over,
The sun burns out face red,
And the dew washes us aknew
And the grain stains our hair green,
There’s so less time and so much more to do,
I wish this moment could have lasted forever,
But the end of summer can only usher the next one.
There’s so less time, but there’s so much to do,
Nobody chases you down in the airport,
Nobody does that to me,
It’s a quiet journey back,
And home seems like imitation,
They sold us to swindle us.
But I still hold onto the time you burst out of theatre doors,
I’m sure if it were a play,
You’d be “Enter left”
And I’d be “pursued by confusion”
And since then, the play has never ended,
And as we loudly punch right into another era,
I just wanna say , I’m so proud of you.
I can’t wait to see the end of this letter with you.
Ishika Dube is a high school writer having started writing since 6th grade. She has written multiple stories, poems and even dabbled in hybrid fiction. She has attended Kinder High School for Performing and Visual Arts as an exchange student for her junior year in the creative writing department. She has earlier been published in journals such Dishari, KHSPVA's Octopus Ink, Tywiorg’s JUVEN and the Silly GAL Mag. She has also been mentored in fiction and poetry through Ellipsis Writing. She also has a short story published in the 21 for 21 Anthology by Puja Roy.