Poetry Breakfast

Backwards I Walk

Backwards I walk
With a lump of sorrow
In the pit of my stomach
Not again, whisper my heart
Can’t take it no more
To be a stop gap arrangement
Because no one else is there
An amusement, an option
When I make you my priority

Backwards I walk
From the crowd you put me in
Where everyone offering
You pain and pleasure
Of varying degree is important

I am just another number
In the system you have devised
Where no hierarchy exists
For people, things and events
A sheep I am not
If you could love them all
Irrespective of who and what
They are, it’s not the love
I know or seek

Backwards I walk
From a place where I am
Entirely dispensable
Here today, gone tomorrow
Lost and forgotten
There are plenty of others
To pain and pleasure you
I am not really needed so
Why should I find bliss
Only in your arms
Or suffer every minute of your absence?

So backwards I walk until
Distance between us allows me
To remove you from the throne
And put you back in crowd

Backwards I walk, until I
Learn to look at the world around me
Without wanting to share it with you
Not weave verses around you in dreams
Or worry about your loneliness

Backwards I walk
Into my true self
Come to meet me there
Someday

About the Poet:
Nalini Priyadarshni is a poet, writer, editor and amateur photographer. Her work has appeared at various international magazines and lit journals including Up the Staircase Weekly, eFiction India, Mad Swirl, Crescent Magazine, The Riveter Review, Writes & Lovers Café, The Gambler, Camel Saloon, Earl of Plaid, CUIB-NEST-NIDO, and The Open Road Review, Phoenix Photo and Fiction, Undertow Tanka besides numerous anthologies including Resonance, I Am Woman, Awakening of She, Art of Being Human etc. She lives in Ludhiana, India with her husband and two feisty kids. Her first solo poetry collection Doppelgänger In My House is expected in 2016.

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Photo courtesy of UnSplash

And You Thought You Would Never Write Again

Nights when you can’t sleep do strange things to you…
Nights after the fights where
Angry words are thrown around
Hurts bartered
Until one leaves in a huff
Unapologetic, Unforgiven

With mouthful of half chewed profanities
You look at tangled skeins of nastiness
Wrapped around your hands
Wondering where to begin untangling
Whether to spit the poison still
Bubbling in your mouth
Or swallow it.

There is no way to unsay the words once spoken
No way to unthrust the hurt
Driven deep into their soles
To stop them from leaving
It just leaves a trail of bitterness
That can’t be washed away

Forgiveness comes much later if at all
Sometimes after a lifetime of negotiation
With your demons
Words you could have said
Or left unsaid
Bruises you could have hidden
With a little make-up
And things would have been just fine
Until the next time

Not for faint spirited
This thing called love
Not if you can’t pick shards of
Your brokenness
And walk off without a limp
Open doors where none exist
Seek light but within
Put hands around your flame
And keep burning
Till your song couldn’t be fettered

….and you thought you would never write again!

About the Poet:
Nalini Priyadarshni is a poet, writer, editor and amateur photographer. Her work has appeared at various international magazines and lit journals including Up the Staircase Weekly, eFiction India, Mad Swirl, Crescent Magazine, The Riveter Review, Writes & Lovers Café, The Gambler, Camel Saloon, Earl of Plaid, CUIB-NEST-NIDO, and The Open Road Review, Phoenix Photo and Fiction, Undertow Tanka besides numerous anthologies including Resonance, I Am Woman, Awakening of She, Art of Being Human etc. She lives in Ludhiana, India with her husband and two feisty kids. Her first solo poetry collection Doppelgänger In My House is expected in 2016.

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Photo courtesy of UnSplash.

Morning Ritual

Morning ritual of shared coffee
with a tea person should make you wary

It could just be their ruse
to inhale any hint of bitterness
along with traces of slumber
on your breath as you blow at froth

Watch out for signs like
flickering tongue on swollen lips

Mightn’t be the coffee they are after
but coffee flavored kisses

About the Author:
Nalini Priyadarshni is a poet, writer, editor and amateur photographer. Her work has appeared at various international magazines and lit journals including Up the Staircase Weekly, eFiction India, Mad Swirl, Crescent Magazine, The Riveter Review, Writes & Lovers Café, The Gambler, Camel Saloon, Earl of Plaid, CUIB-NEST-NIDO, and The Open Road Review, Phoenix Photo and Fiction, Undertow Tanka besides numerous anthologies including Resonance, I Am Woman, Awakening of She, Art of Being Human etc. She lives in Ludhiana, India with her husband and two feisty kids. Her first solo poetry collection Doppelgänger In My House is expected in 2016.

Photo courtesy of StockSnap