Deadbeat love

by Abhinavya Egala
( i.) Saturday evenings and summer scents 
 
I stretch the sky   
Like a sappy love song
across your skin
 
But you say stars burnt 
Like scarlet letters on your palm lines
And love was a thing 
Too good for you
To tarnish
Twice.
 
( ii.) Paper crumbs And parallelisms
 
I slip poems
Into park bench slots
So you could wear them 
Like bandaids
On all those phantom scars
 
you were like a tide
Torn between 
the shore and the moon
Habit and home
And your heart became a cemetery
For anything that seemed like hope
 
( iii.)Winter lips and weary eyes
 
we speak silence 
In our own dialects
 
You were tired
Of forevers
They all come down to
Weekdays' waiting
And weekend weariness
You say 
In your silence.
 
( iv.) Morning markets And Valentine cards at sale
 
I ghost our elegies
In your tombstone heart
You say
We are a mere memory
Losing its meaning 
between meter and metaphors
 
So I trade my deadbeat poems
For a pack of cigars
And try to soak your lipstick stains
In nicotine clouds and sunburnt rains
 
( v.)
Wine stains 
And Wild flowers wearing 
                              
your smile 
 
like yesterday's yearning
And tomorrow's turmoil
Become my daily routine 
 
So I whitewash the walls
off our Wednesday love affairs
and Sunday break ups
And wear my silence like a prayer
Cause There's a hacksaw in my heart
That twitches every time I say your name

94th Weekly Poetry Contest
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