Amidst A Thousand Suns

~verses in veins~

Anamika's P.O.V.

~~~

"And today, we have with us, a new performer. Please give a round of applause for Aaghyaa!"

Standing right beside me, Aaghyaa took deep breaths to calm herself down.

This was the first time she was reciting her poetry in front of anyone.
Besides the paragraph on 'burning' that I had sneakily read about an year or so ago, I had never known her works.

She glanced at me wearily and with her leather journal in her hand and her blue summer dress flowing with her movement right about her knee, she went up the stage.

I glanced at Alfaaz and he smiled nervously when he caught my eye.
By the continuous swaying and the deep, shaky breaths he took, I can very much say that he was as nervous as Aaghyaa.

Aaghyaa and Alfaaz has been coming here, to 'The Friendly Bean', for over an year now to see him perform his musical bits.
As for me, my daughter said that it was her first time performing in front of various people and that she would like if I would come.
My answer was pretty obvious.

The closeness between both the young adults was so noticeable.
When we three had entered the café almost half-an-hour ago, Aaghyaa had asked Alfaaz what was he to perform today.
He just smiled at her sweetly and said that he wasn't there to perform today, but just to hear to her words.
The redness on her face had shone through all the dimlit lights of the place so brightly.

From where we were sitting; on the very last table of the café, we could see Aaghyaa right in front of us.

As she adjusted the microphone on the stand to fit her height, the spotlight focused fully on her.
She was taken aback but recovered quickly.

She flipped open her book to where the poem was written with extremely shaky hands and cleared her throat.
From my peripheral vision, I could see Alfaaz straighten up and sit on the very edge of the chair.

My eyes went to her when she started speaking.

'You ask me,
why am I always surrounded by suns.'

She again, took a calming breath and this time, spoke with a voice so stern like a female who knows what she is doing and is proud of it.

'You ask me,
why am I always surrounded by suns.

Come, sit down, hear me out,
it's the first time I am voicing
out my story,
and since you asked the question,
you better hear me.

Let me tell you how it feels
to be burning,
and burning,
and burning;
with a passion of dying so bright
and yet,
so devoid of brightness;
with a devotion to it so deep,
that I was a Saint,
and dying, my Godess.

Oh, you ask me why?
Then, let me tell you how it feels
when you stab your own life
till it's fresh blood
turns cursed by the black liquid
that runs in your veins.
Let me tell you how it feels
to paint the sky of your dreams
and also be the lightening
who destroys it.