Where wells an ocean floor, there breaks the surface of thy discontent
Ravens brought by my door -not news of Lenore-
But surging memories of malcontent; I suspect therefore
Without parallel, such great tides felt irrelevant
For upon the ocean floor lies the moon and her remembrance, only sediment.
Hold on, you said.
If I knew where we were going
I’d lose my way.
Are we just the weight of memories?
I know what you’re trying to say,
The lost possibilities you still see.
And I’ll catch a cold, away
From your jar of hearts
But you already know,
So hold on, hold on,
The weight of fallen memories
Will keep us afloat
Away from Goodbye.
Listen,
You want quiet but you should hear
between your fleeing emotions,
Between an ocean
My eyes will not see what they longed to see
and
your lips will not taste what they long to taste
So why try to forget
When time will make everything seem misplaced?
You’d ask why I said nothing
laughing as you do,
whispering in Sinhala.
But when you’re so far away
I only hear a phone,
so different.
Not your laugh while
you lay on grass and
your curls threatened
to envelop the world.
Rijul Ballal 