Three Knocks At My Door
In the still silence lies the answer.
Three knocks at my door
Soft, gentle, patient.
I walk up to the discoloured wooden frame
The eye-hole is all blurry,
Or is it my eyes — my thoughts
That give them the blur?
I stick my face to the door
Struggling to find you —
Who or what, is trying to rob me
Of my pensive thoughts.
Sixty seconds later
Three knocks at my door
Harsh, loud, impatient.
I am taken aback by their suddenness
A pungent smell oozes out,
From the corners and the cracks
Ominous, unpleasant, disturbing.
I gulp down my tasteless saliva
My breaths are heavy,
My palms are moist.
Three knocks at my door
Unsettling, violent, unpardonable;
The smell gets bitter — coming down
Heavy on my chest.
A sharp cry — whimpering, may be
Piercing my heart and drilling a hole
My forehead is sweaty, my ears are red
I feel spineless and cold,
Like an earthworm’s body
Waiting for its end.
Two and a half minutes pass
The grandfather’s clock ticks thrice.
Three knocks at my door
Thundering, collapsing, forcing
My nose is blocked with the smell
My ears are absent
And my eyes feel overwhelmed,
With the sudden outburst
Of a fluorescent blue beam coming through the door
As it lay open without a sound.
A familiar face, as if in a mirror.
I step forward, curious and aware
My feet feel confident
The other entity progresses too
With wilful cooperation
And we hug for the first time in three decades.
I am no more afraid of my savage self
The self that has wants, demands and desires
And the power to achieve them,
Crushing the obstacles that forces it to think otherwise.
