Winter Inside!

With a lost gaze, he wanders around,

Trying to steal an ounce of warmth that melts the winter in him!

For him, it seems like the world is being showered with love and laughter  

Except for the space wherever he is struck.  

For him, the spring has always been a rumor,  

And he’s a captive of endless winter,  

The winter that’s covered in pale snow,  

Making his insides feel too cold and dry;  

The illusion of solitude stayed with him briefly  

And left him freezing in that empty, cruel space alone!  

He thinks that this winter is contagious,  

It kidnaps all the people around him if he talks about it!  

He believes that it swallows man as a whole,  

Creating a whirlpool of emotions,  

Pulling them into a noiseless, colorless world  

Without a trace of the joyous, warm world that once existed!  

Not dragging anyone into this mess is his kind of protection.  

He wonders why everyone says emptiness is a dark space,  

And ponders if it were true, it might have been peaceful  

To hide inside that pitch-black space,  

Rather than being exposed in the vast blankness that swaddled him!  

This emptiness punctuates the wounds left by life  

In the name of moving on and growing up,  

The memories that scarred his soul!  

In between the scars, he appears here and there,  

Trying to reach out to the colors splashed around!  

To catch the drops of drizzling happiness that’s being showered around,  

To find the root of the joys that make people around him  

Smile,  

Laugh,  

Excited.  

Then he imitates all those actions to find the colors that suit him,  

Hoping that he’ll find those colors and fill in the blank space,  

With a warm, cozy painting that melts the winter snow!  

With a lost gaze, he keeps wandering around,  

Collecting shades of lives around him,  

Adding those colors to the blank space,  

Filling in the voids…

- Pallavi Kabbinahithlu