Until You Come and Wake Me Up


The lights in this big and empty room tremble as my legs shiver
and your name with each skipped breath touches my lips without kissing
The walls embedding your shadow echo the song I heard over the phone
and its words go all out finding the meaning without you around
I leave the door open, I leave my voice there
for you to come, for you to hear

Within the folds of the sheet of no end, I’ve hidden all my thirst and desires
and the fathomless creases on it read the letter I haven’t yet written
My hands stretch to touch your face emerging like a rainbow in the clouds
and my ears in this aching silence try to hear the song you haven’t yet sung
I shut the lights off, I shut my eyes
for a dream to come, for a love to live within

Until you come and wake me up

-Kritika Vashist


Different Kind Of Ache


There is a different kind of ache in my heart
although it is similar to the one I had
when the plane took off
and my heart was punched hard
by the gravity of a love left behind
and was stabbed by the distance
that I remember it bled for days
(it still does)
and I remember lying in the bed
sometimes crying loud enough
that the pain echoed in the big house
which felt lonely and small without you
and sometimes stuffing my mouth with the quilt
which failed to keep me warm
(it still doesn’t)
This throbbing ache tonight sways me
to let this longing for you
travel through my heart
into a poetry that won’t ever be fair
to the sincerity of my heart
which might just die
because it has longed for so long
but tonight even if I wish to write
I find no words
and few that hang to the stars
of night that seldom betray me
are too far from my reach
or they might just have
stopped looking for me
So I sit all by myself
pressing my hand
against my chest
where you bury your worries
while it springs with your smell
(it always does)
hoping that this ache goes away. 

-Kritika Vashist