Today, someone will walk into the night
& then become it. Someone’s heart
will crowd with beloved ghosts
& who am I to say, dance
―Cameron Awkward-Rich 

Reader, our world is dangerous. Yesterday, an unsuspecting silhouette swabbed in amber streetlight flit past the corner of a crowded street and just like that, a human essence sublimated to memory in one of the city’s old alleys. Along with darkness, the witnesses vanished and became dawn’s debt forever. Today in the newspaper, a missing person― photo of grinning face, age, clothes last seen wearing, a call for help, a mood of such despair. Who saw this coming, did you? In any case, Reader, you and I are still here, bereaved and palpating, ears leaning windward for the unsung music of cold lips. I admit my primal need. I want to grab you in my affliction, shake you and kiss your sores. This is all we’ll ever have. Our bones shimmering in intertwined gelatin, our bones of eternal contention. Twilight smiling; stay here, where the feast lies. Reader, my notion of body changes with every wound. I’m not even sure if a God is assigned for watching over me, my startling faults. Still I’m curious to detect the note of persimmon in dark wine, the chubbiest lobe of low hanging fruit. The years confirm that satisfaction lies in the clawing of knowing. Reader, I’ve lived in the margins despite owning the heartlands. For there was joy once in being my own observer. Once I caught myself crying on a writhing mirror’s glass, glass of my eyes shining like untamed silver, smelling like incensed timber. I still can’t believe the eyes could smell of something. Reader, do me a favour. Find a rhythm to sway to. Awful ―Beautiful. Beautiful― Awful. Like an invisible thump of underground drumbeats. Or a faceless lover’s arms time to time cradling your quivering chest. In any case I think you’ll make it―

Satya Dash’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in Waxwing, Wildness, Redivider, Passages North, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Florida Review, Prelude, The Cortland Review, Poetry@Sangam amongst others. Apart from having a degree in electronics from BITS Pilani-Goa, he has been a cricket commentator too. He is a two-time Orison Anthology and Best New Poets nominee. He spent his early years in Odisha and now lives in Bangalore, India. He tweets at: @satya043