No, no, what is this I see?
Dancing lights in front of me
Bright, shiny orbs wake me from my stupor
Thumping against my chest

Words, are you?
You’ve escaped!
Already broken free
No no, this was not meant to be.

Pretty words, I have to swallow you back
I’ve not yet breathed meaning into you
I’ve not examined your intentions
or dissected your souls
I’ve not yet labelled you
We have to wait
We have to navigate
We have to be sensible, you know?
We can’t just let our delirium show

No, no, wayward words, you can’t be so bright.
Not so full of magic and light

Fade a little, lustrous words!
No one wants to see you
or hear you
or devour you
Like I did on that moonlight night
When you tumbled out of a beautiful mouth.
Vagabond words.
Rambling, journeying words,
You made home in little corners of me I didn’t know existed.

No, no, don’t let me stray, silly words.
Don’t just pour out.
We don’t just blurt it out

We curate and compile
A nip here, a tuck there.
Some caution here and restraint there…
So we can make neat little sentences
Pleasing and perfect
Not an article out of place

No, no, stubborn words
Stop rolling out like a hurricane
Your rebellion is showing
The crazy winds are blowing
Look what you’ve done
Kicking up the sand
Rustling up the leaves
We can’t have this chaos.

Simmer down, wandering words
Your sharp taste of tangerine
Tart and juicy
Is just too much

Water down, gypsy words
Dim your shine

Or one day,
When I’m not careful enough
Maybe, because I was gazing too long
At a starry, starry night
When the air has the right amount of madness...
Lustful words, I know you’ll turn on me
Turn inside of me
Turn into dazzling, light sabres
Fierce, wild and unhinged
And you’ll shred my insides
Till all I am is just tiny fragments of light
Luminous like the cosmos
And we can’t have that, can we?

Photos: Diwali at Bhandup by Lovell D'souza.