When Fear Stalks:
Published in
Nov 1, 2021
November
I am afraid of Novembers now
I sat and wept like this, last year,
At this time
At another life cut short.
Another set of eyes that had
No more tears to shed.
Another house of helpless pain
And encroaching silence…
Another family, bereft.
Where tears that burn create a desert
Of aborted hopes and the ashes of joy.
Another pair of heaving shoulders
Trying to assimilate pain.
“How long does it take to burn a body?”
my friend asked me,
Staring at the ‘body’ of the man she had married,
Lying before her.
And answered it herself, wonderingly,
“Five minutes?
Is that all it takes,
To snuff out a life?”
…
Heal, my friend.
For yourself.
For me.
©️Suma Narayan 2021
