Welcome Reader, let’s play hopscotch:
It’s midnight, and you’re all alone
With naught but Morrissey as friend
Who whispers words into your ear
Of how it’s all over, and then
You get a notif on your phone:
Your ex just liked your story on
Instagram. And now a million
Thoughts assume form inside your head.
How will you proceed? Make a choice:
Verse 1 to just check their profile.
Verse 2 to blindly message back.
Verse 3 to try and get some sleep.
Verse 1:
The prick in your heart reminds you-
Love still exists. And hungry is.
So, heart makes demand of fingers
To type a name that once had home
On your lips permanently, or
So you wished. Fingers oblige, and
Eyes follow to find a face still
So beautiful, a body which
Held yours once and called you lover
Now draped on another’s body.
Of course, this makes you want to die,
Among a lot of other things.
Verse 4 to leave a mean comment.
Verse 3 to leave it well alone.
Verse 2:
With not a thought, you’re transported
To an age past when thoughtlessly
Any thought or inkling of it
Would jump from brain to messages,
And it seems muscle memory
Has made it so before you know
There’s words on the text box, next to
SEND, which is clicked even before
The brain can comprehend. Panic
Follows, of course, but within it
There’s a thing with feathers, that thinks
What if I can have it all back?
Proceed to Verse 5.
Verse 3:
There’s not much Morrissey has said
That should be listened to except
The immortal chorus within
The third song of The Queen is Dead
(Google That for Extra Points)
Which you now softly sing yourself
Eyes watering but bravely held
As you drift to much welcomed sleep.
End Poem
Verse 4:
Love’s opposite was never hate.
In fact, indifference wears that crown.
Hate is but love’s obverse. That’s why
No matter what words you write down
They only cut you deep. Tattered.
Anemic. Almost, lightheaded
You must now move back to Verse 3.
Verse 5:
As swiftly as hope came, it left.
It’s midnight, they can’t even see
Your messages, and if they did
Why would they answer to late texts
From an ex-lovers? Or, what if
They have another, which surely
Can’t be the case right? You must check.
So, go back to Verse 1 and see.
Sameen Shakya’s poems have been published in Alternate Route, Cosmic Daffodil, Hearth and Coffin, Roi Faineant and Thin Veil Press, to name a few. Born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, he moved to the USA in 2015 to pursue writing. He earned an Undergraduate Degree in Creative Writing from St Cloud State University and traveled the country for a couple of years to gain a more informal education. He returned to Kathmandu in 2022 and is currently based there.