Words to you

Aditya Singh Chawla (Batch of 2017)

Words mask, pause,

falter.

On speech, rhyme, metaphor.

Gibberish, gibberish.

I want to be you.

The depths of your being,

Through shallow, vague, finite –

the utterance of your tongue.

Only a ghost, a shadow

of you.

An ocean of your being,

Through haze, maze, a fog

of doubt, vulnerability.

Only a trickle, a drop

of you.

You.

Tempered by language, fettered by its sanity

I cannot so, be you.

I could command, demand, implore.

I would falter, pause, stammer

on speech, on metaphor. Gibberish, gibberish.

I could not so, be you.

I could be you.

Every fibre of your being,

Nerve, muscle, sinew.

In gasp, caress, shiver.

I’d know. Know all

of you.

The ocean. Depths, trenches, crevices, shadows.

I would dive, I could flounder.

But I’d glide, rush, writhe

As I drown. Drown

in you.

I would be you.

Unfettered, unshackled, untempered

by prose, rhyme, meter.

In taste, sigh, tremor – my words

to you.

In this utterance of our being

You’d have, know, be me. And

I, you.

#Poetry #nls #quirk #nationallawschool #NLSIU #adityachawla