A Divergent Mind

It never heals,

On some days a mere bruise,

On others a gaping hole;

Rife under an unwitting scab;

Chipping at the edges that clumped mass.

A slow rogue erythrocyte emerges to bathe in serum again!

Ah soon a wound - what maggot wouldn’t desist!

Nah no bandage, one wouldn’t need one, or would they?

Do they know?

Would they ever know if they stained years?

On some days all that remains is a scar for the watchful eye,

The observant ones, the prying ones, the ones that thrive on blemishes.

Rare mornings… dopamine rivulets galore,

Flowing from the memory of a pat on the back from a glorious night,

And yet by noons the clefts are parched and vesicles barren!

Far from where the race starts and eyes watch their baseline,

Lies an invisible stretch to cover, to match, to ace, to mask.

To whip and worsen, or summon the memory of another pat;

Before a tremble, a mental ramble, a missed beat or two or few,

A little twitch, a gripe, or more; and every plain eye could tell.

Yet the greedy lacerations keep winding up the timer,

The cycle begins afresh, tires itself a hundred times over, forever.

The blur is the only home some minds ever know.

Priyam Kotwal was born and brought up in Lucknow. She currently works as a Senior Consultant with Gartner. She holds a B.Tech in Biotechnology, a PGD in Global Business Operations, a Masters in Counselling Psychology and a post-master’s diploma in Community Mental Health. Priyam loves singing, birding and penning poems. Her modest oeuvre of poetry comprises poems on love, longing and embracing oneself, among other themes.