Pain is a seed which grows with time and spreads its brown branches over the bones and sheds its leaves in the rivulets of blood till it exceeds the body and becomes a carapace
You can come out of it Listen to the cadence of heartbeats that croon a rhyme of revelry behold the candle of the soul that burns in you and throws the petals of flames to the darkest recesses
There's enough inspiration beneath the skin that has survived the ruins and rains of time
Gather the obsolete bones and burn them with the fire
Pour the last trickle of blood in the sea that swallows everything
Take the rest of the body and grind it to dust with a mortar and pestle
Strip the garb of mortality which has pain engraved on it
That's it
The soul which can never be soiled is freed from the bondage
You are purged
You rise from your broken self like a wisp of smoke
Debasish Mishra is a Senior Research Fellow at National Institute of Science Education and Research, HBNI, India, who has earlier worked with United Bank of India and Central University of Odisha. He is the recipient of the Bharat Award for Literature in 2019 and the Reuel International Upcoming Poet Prize in 2017. His recent work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Penumbra, The Headlight Review, Amsterdam Quarterly, California Quarterly, and elsewhere. His first book Lost in Obscurity and Other Stories has been recently published by Book Street Publications, India.
