Nilesh Mondal

imagine how dry
your throat will become when
you say their name out loud, it
will feel like your mouth getting
acquainted with a new language.

Love doesn’t mean staying unhappy, I learnt that too late.

Home once used to be a place, not
just the absence of memory.

Our lives are struggles, to bear witness, to speak out, to stand for something which we believe is worth standing for.

You’ve got to understand, there are no escape hatches to life, the way there are no fireflies when it rains, or snowflakes when your throat is parched.

Listen to every shiver that wrecks her body, and in it you’ll find the evaluation of intimacy.

You can run into people who don’t remind you of your age. You can look into the mirror for an extra half hour.

They want no hair on your body. So dip your body in wax, like sacrificial goat served on platter with honey.

It was a feeling of deep ecstasy and deeper pain. It was the ache of knowing there weren’t more of you I was allowed to touch.

Don’t let them tell you you’re immigrants in your own land.

When was the last time someone asked you how you felt of this world and you didn’t weave the words they’d like to hear?

last messages should be urgent, they should sound like the bombs falling, the ground shattering on impact, they should feel heavy as the roof crashing down on unwitting shoulders