Aman Basra

You aren’t just liable for yourself anymore and you don’t have the insurance of infinite time. The implications of your choices have more power now and you realize you aren’t as free as you thought you would be.

Enlighten me please with your wildest aspirations, the ones we never admit but silently tell ourselves.

This is how we exist, intertwined in each other’s trust.

Eventually, a brave soul approached you unlike the rest of us cowards.

This is how you’ve endured, hands clenched and heart sewn by a concavity of emotion.

There will be anxiety and you will be an infusion of nerves, susceptible to the slightest trigger. Each feeble disappointment, each missed bus or train, each misplaced item, each will be a catalyst.

He doesn’t just remember but cherishes these memories of you. Each and every memory is a stretched tale told as if the story of you and him is an ancient fable.

You will be fixated on misery and grief internally. Not always but in fleeting moments, it always comes back. In your mind you will always resort to whatever pained you.

Do you ever wonder at what point you become a grown up? Is there some pinnacle age? Do we pass some standardized experiences before we claim such a title? Because everything I associate with adulthood is underway like the 9-5 grind and the financial responsibilities.

You exist here, in this forgiving world of solace and it is here that you will appease your soul.

I am the embodiment of nerves on the brink of collapse.

We come across people for no matter other than to capture specific moments and to see the beauty of human interaction and of plot lines colliding; the why the story is individually decided, because we all see different themes.

Strangers enter the train and you lose the liberty of an empty train to commit your sins. But you continue to look at her until she gets off, you stare at her as if she’s prey. She’s more than skin and bones.

Take me apart and I’m sure you’ll find some stardust in me, some remnants of long lost stars in my veins. If so, then maybe the question isn’t, who the stars shine for, but which ones shine, the ones in the sky or the ones here? Can’t people shine for each other? Why do we need to look up for guidance when it could be amidst us or even within?

Talk of trivialities at first, surroundings, people, weather, and things of that sort. Share your unwritten Wikipedia pages. Watch one of you laugh with nerves. Admit to this, admit how novel this feels for the both of you but also, how promising.

Hold the sun in your hands and see how little it burns and how much you can and will accomplish.

He never learned though, he never learned or accepted your departure. He thinks he’s moved on when he’s sound and sober, but when he’s drunk, really drunk, he’s the victim of his own nostalgia.

Just close your eyes and let solace in. This is how it will get better; this is how you will heal.