Desolation Poem by Nibedita Phukan

Something was chasing me about
Something that had no shape
No name

Like a firm feeling it coursed through the veins
No one was witness to the moments of the chase
With me there was only my way-brother
In evenings spiked with acuity, loaded with tranquillity
Filled with barrenness
Its load was past bearing
An insufferableness bereft of form
An insufferableness without a name

Lines grew more numerous on my furrowed brow
Anti-ageing lotions were on the last legs of efficacy
To rid me perhaps of that insufferableness
Came time and words
And the formless insufferableness assumed a form
Anonymity took the guise of pain
A desolate yet bearable feeling
Time is whose eternal sibling