all the cliches

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all the cliches that i laughed at

have come back to haunt me.

such as: i'm crying myself to sleep.

i'm watching reason and urge go to war

turning me into salted earth, poisoned wells, arsoned forests.

i'm scrolling our old photos

like a dying king reading a declaration of siege.

i'm imagining a sudden call:

the riot of prepounce breath that is the gate

which will be stormed by your hello kya haal

like a foregone revolution.

i thought the most heartbreaking thing about me

was my numbness but no:

the most heartbreaking about me is just my heartbreak:

it breaks not just my heart but my image of myself

as a deviant: turns out i'm just another guy

nursing just another heartache

pining for just another warm place

where i didn't have to dream alone.

all the cliches such as:

i'm hovering over the send button

like a vulture circling a stillmoving skeleton:

i can't.

without you.

i should've been stronger.

i should've loved you better.

i want to burn these unsent letters

but i also want the smoke rising out of this

to spell out the same letters in the sky

so that you, as another island of cloud,

can see that i'm burning but not do anything about it.

~ ajay

27/11/2024

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