Suffocate

It starts with a feeling of emptiness. Then it begins. You know that feeling when you’re on a Ferris wheel and the chair swings forward on the way down and you feel your body lift in the air? The feeling that your heart has left it’s cavity. Air forces its way into your stomach and you feel as though it’s going to feel like gravity in a second. But seconds pass and you’re not descending. You’re in stasis. In mid-air. No way of knowing how you’re going to get down. You’re hating every moment of being suspended.

You breathe. And no air fills your lungs. They feel empty. Everything inside feels empty. There isn’t even a vacuum. Everything is just hollow. You plummet for a second and you exhale. But then that feeling shoots up again. And you’re back in mid-air.

I feel that way all the time these days. I’ve been heart broken so many times I should be used to the catatonia. But you see it’s not a heart break. It’s falling in love that causes this anxiety.

I keep fearing that i’m going to lose it all. Just like I did earlier. I keep fearing I am going to lose my mother the way I lost my aunts in 2019 and 2021. I keep missing my sister who has left the city after marriage. I keep thinking that I am going to lose my furkids because I have lost four before.

The anxiety doesn’t seem to know logic. Philosophy of how a probably future shouldn’t affect the immediate present doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t trust life. I don’t trust love. I don’t trust myself. So how am I supposed to trust people who say they love me?

Have you felt this way? Have you managed to cope with these insecurities? How have you done so? Please, do share.

Caged

I welcomed you into my life,
When I was whole and strong;
I disclosed all of my strife;
You vowed you would belong.

You were privy to each moment;
All my loved ones knew you:
For I fought to make it just so:
How else could we be true?

But I have never known your home,
For you had no real say,
I have walked around your life –
In mine, I built your way.

After you’ve left, door ajar,
Drawers empty, faith torn,
You did not leave just me, my love,
You left a family forlorn.

Each wound I laid down before you,
Back when you wanted me;
You slept, baked, loved, lived, in these walls,
They probe now, seeking clarity.

Everyone I brought to you,
Now question, grieve and rage –
With each talk, I relive your loss –
It cannot fade, for it does not age.

Your life has none who know me,
Not even the lone sibling,
Whose time I chose to ask for,
Whose voice you sought to bring…

No one speaks for me, before you;
But I speak with many each day;
They cry, when I cry, having known you;
Each wish to have their say.

I gave you what you did not have,
I gave you them, I gave you me,
Perhaps you never thought it so
And caged me, thinking yourself free.

The Ones Who Still Love Me

It’s the third day
Since you left
Me.
The crying is now intermittent,
Between daily chores.
They interfere with the tears,
So, sadness lies hidden
Like the truth you never shared.

The ones who still love me
Become vocal.
They blame.
I cannot.
I’m in love.
It’s masochistic.

I regress into my room.
Fearful their love
Will terrify mine.

I can’t blame.
Not them. Not even you.

It’s all a matter of
Love.

Logic may appear –
Bringing a scale –
When promises and the past
Are measured.

It may.

Right now I deal
With hiding tears,
And countering
Future fears.