Spontaneous condensation
I inhale slow and deep
Imagining the oxygen in the air
grow heavy
Heavy enough to dampen
like a single lonely rain cloud
Then lay a generous drop on my parched tongue
Making waves with my arms
every time I decide it's too cold
Or too hot
Or when my own pulse is too loud in my ears
Thinking about counting how long it would have been since I last saw sand
Felt it beneath greedy soles succumbing into the gravity of the low tide
158 days
If my math is right
Since I wore shoes
with socks
Or heels with straps
Held my hair to my ears
during a windy morning
auto rickshaw ride
Sipped cheap, overly sweet tea
from styrofoam cups
Out of a whim
From just finding a 10 rupee note from the bum pocket
Rode an elevator with perfume and body odour both wafting
Scents I can never place
but were familiar as the wind itself
Walked on a busy footpath
on the side of incoming traffic
Just for the thrill of it
And get much more than I would like to seek
158 days since I crossed any road
Seen the lazy yet loving stray dogs
Sat in an Uber
Used my trusty green umbrella
I hold on for too long in this thought canopy
I will will sleep
to barge into this insomniac mind
Despite the thirsty throat plus swelling bladder
But then I give up
Pry open unwilling lids tightly squeezed out of stubbornness
Drink that damn glass of water and empty my bladder
Get back under the covers
And the cycle, at my behest, begins again
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