Now Here's Why Poem by Shikha Gupta

One day, in a very uncomfortable moment,
He asked me why I didn't smile anymore.

The question tugged strangely at the air,
Beneath my eyelashes,
And that other funny place I don't talk much about.

I didn't think he'd notice anything funny
In the air
Or that other funny place I don't talk much about.

So I just hid my face
Behind a book,
Trying to read through blur,
Waiting for him to go.

And then I thought about when
He actually did go.
A very long time back,
For a very long time.
And how I'd cried then,
Not smart enough to hide behind a book.
And how I'd cried,
Cried my eyes out,
Cried till they fell right out off their sockets
And rolled right across the floor
And followed him all the way out
Till as far as they could see.

And then I cried thinking about how I'd cried then,
When he'd gone away,
And how all I wanted now was for him
To go away.

Between the sixty-three odd seconds
And ten years that had passed,
The air still strangely hummed
Because it had been tugged at so violently
By the claw of the question mark.

I guess he finally sensed it.

His knees creaked.
His sigh mixed with the air.
He left.

And then I cried because he'd left me
Again.
And I thought,
Maybe,
For a tough girl,
I'm not that tough.