PEOPLE I KNOW

 People I know leave their prayers under the carpets before leaving the courtyard for town.

People I know kiss each others mouth behind closed doors not out of love but as a habit 

People I know bargain to the vegetable vendor for a one rupee note because they are numismatics of future.

People I know leave robs of their dreams for their children to wear.

People I know are afraid to hold hands in public so they hide it in their pockets and duppattas

People I know slowly forget how to fly paper aeroplanes and make paper boats on rainy days.            

People I know cry over broken tea cups but never for broken hearts 

People I know decorate polaroids of their ancestors and keep it in cellar like pickled lemons

People I know write about the role of Shakespeare in modernism but ignore love letters on cold nights 

People I know tell beauty tips to their daughters to erase their brown skin but never asks their sons to stop catcalling 

People I know search for warmth in empty closets and smell of moth balls

People I know raise silent prayers for the girl who got raped in the railway track and laugh at a misogynistic joke next minute 

People I know keep old movie tickets under their pillows along with paper napkins with their old lover's cells.

People I know hide their politics in their cinnamon eyes and nods their head carefully.

People I know pack water when they go out for a family picnic and toss a ragged five rupee note to a homeless man.

People I know eat in the company of unfinished dinner conversations and leave their mothers over half boiled eggs.

People I know refuse to speak of the scars and stars of a poets breath.

People I know burn like cigarette butts trying to cement the limbs of their family tree letting go of everything they wished for

People I know sleepwalk in the streets, their tongues tied to the "good morning " of a six year old.

People I know don't know me for am just another book easy to forget after a reading.

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