Undoing My Mistakes by Prem Sylvester

undoing my mistakes

sitting with you should be easier.

i hold my hands out to you
to part this sea. my blessed shore is adrift.

i try to speak to you.

my words hang limp, lumpen earrings.
i sense you grow tired of wearing them.

i caress your skin, gently as i can.

touch leaves roses on your skin,
but they wilt away to the thorns.

i try to embrace you.

i am wooden to the touch, oaken arms
all grey shade, little softness for you to reach

i kiss your forehead.

your eyes don't light up like they used to.
we were always bound to the twilight, weren't we?

i try to wipe away your tears.

diamond shreds blur your view of the horizon.  
helpless, i wish i could undo the strain of this earth.

i tell you i am here for you, forever.

we sit apart, together. relearning intimacy.
when you rest on my shoulder, our wisteria blooms.

​

Prem Sylvester is an Indian writer who turns into words the ideas he catches a whiff of from time to time. Sometimes people read these words. His work has appeared or is upcoming in Memoir Mixtapes, Rigorous, and Rising Phoenix Review.

---