Chasing Shadows

He wished and yearned,

For someone to knock on the door,

But the door remained shut,

Like his eyes, smug behind the lids.

His hands turned limp,

His legs immobile,

And his body stuck to a magnet.

He began perspiring,

Which smelled of loneliness.

Drops of dew

Stuck to the window like

Random thoughts,

Before cascading down on its

Own weight, on the sill.

He couldn’t see anybody coming,

Or hear the knock on his door.

The day had just begun;

And he wished for an early fall of night,

To escape from the clutches of another day,

And wakefulness.

Kalucharan Sahu