Our feelings are trapped within us. Neelakshi asks if hurt could be hung on the wall and displayed, in this poignant verse, exclusively for Different Truths.

Can you hang up your hurt

On a wall or something?

So that they can see it

On, say, scraps and notes

And bits and post-its

Notebooks, sheets

Or posters, banners,

Or heap them up

To heal… With flowers

Heaps and heaps of them

Like Lady Di’s                                                                               

On her impromptu

Memorial…

Laid out lovingly, on show!              

Peacefully, longingly,

Sincerely laid out

So pretty no one would know

How much or when or why

They hurt … so much …

Except you…

And when the time came to carry them away

You would remember

Each little crumple, each fold,

Each scar, dog-ear,

Scratch and watermark

But you’ll have to let go…

Let go like everything

Like the sands of time

Like water through your fingers

Like the wind blowing on your face

Like a birthday candle

Like time….

And let them be carried away

Buried away? Maybe

Who knows?

Unless…you really build

A hurt wall?

©Nilakshi Roy

Pix from Net.

Nilakshi Roy

Nilakshi Roy is an Associate Professor in English in Vaze College, Mulund, Mumbai. An occasional academic writer and poet, she writes short stories and articles. A founder of Culture All: Conversations on Cultural and Social Awareness, she works with underprivileged children and women, in Thane, in her spare time as of now. She has authored a number of papers on diverse subjects, notably on fashion, on the Saree, and the choli, and on film.

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