AN OVERTURE TO ILLUMINATION

Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Compromise

This feels like an accident,
How we break into each other’s bones,
Saying that we matter so much,
All the while throwing words into the abyss,
Maybe you’re someone I should keep at bay,
But I am a wisher,
That makes desperations on memories,
Long faded away.

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Pompeii

Let the ashes of our sins drench us,
They will make this volcano a phoenix,
Yes, we are dormant, but our lava never cools,
But washing the world ablaze burns us out,
Sometimes, I wish we had become the lovers they found,
Intertwined beyond the valley of sorrow,
Intact skeletons — 
Instead of these scattered bones.

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Personality

My identity is hinged on you,
Whatever you want, I’ll become,
I’ll be a prude,
I’ll be a whore,
Whatever it takes to be all yours,
Religious or atheist,
The person to take you to the clouds,
Or the one who keeps your feet on the ground,
This dependence has gotten to the point where
I’ll hold my breath until you tell me to breathe,
And stop my heart until you tell it to beat.

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Priceless

Why are you pushing yourself into a box?
You’re not meant for this world,
(Maybe not even for this universe),
Why won’t you come with me?
We’ll escape, we’ll escape into a sense of insanity,
We can find gold on the ground,
Make your choice and weigh your breath,
Because we’re stuck in a daydream and I’ve been meaning to
Escape, escape for so long,
So why won’t you understand?
I can’t stand leaving you alone here,
Because maybe I need you,
(Maybe you’re my escape).

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Independence

The suits are sneaking through from the slits of your fingers,
My feet are wooden soles, and I can’t move at all without aching with agony,
The road is so cluttered now, broken dreams littered on the sidewalk;
And what do I do without a map to trace a destination for me?
I’m on my own, and I know this isn’t a postcard,
But (P.S., wishing you were here)

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Tragedy

I met my villain, and I met my savior, and I found them to be the same person,
I starved myself of everything I needed, and I can’t make sense of anything anymore,
All I strove for has turned to dust, and I made a mess out of myself,
Mispressed triggers and turned over paper linger on me now,
I thought I could control my life, but instead, my life controls me,
I could count the ways that I look at the moon, but then I’d be up all night missing you.

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Dichotomy

I blame you, I crave you,
I’d kill you, I’d save you,
You’d be the death of me, you’d be the breath of me,
You took all my glory and gave me all my energy,
You block the sun, but you bring me midnight and noon,
I only ever find you standing underneath a twelve foot monsoon.

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Cheers

They call me strong; I’ll show them stronger,
They taunt, and they jeer, but I placed aces on every game,
They paint me with vices, but I have shone virtues,
They beat me up with their envy and their ire, but I only bleed glory,
I only bleed desire,
They try to blind me with their two-faced masks, but I am blind, I’m blind, can’t you see me?
They keep shouting their catcalls; they keep making my name,
But I am deaf, I am deaf, can’t you hear me?

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Apart

And we are getting so much farther,
And so much closer,
I can hear you, but you won’t say anything,
Yet when I am screaming, you are deaf to every word,
The distance between our lives seems so jumbled,
Spaces and backspaces,
How can we be nothing and something?
We don’t even have to try to be a mess,
But we need to try to not to,
No wonder you left, with such restrictions,
You were in a cage, and I called it freedom.

Read More
Vareesha Khan Vareesha Khan

Search

This is ruckus!
This is madness!
You’re a mess,
From your sadness,
You lost yourself!
But I doubt you ever had it in the first place,
Looking there and here and never looking where,
You came and went and stayed too long when you should have left,
Grasping at the fingertips that reached out,
Reached back,
And maybe your own were better,
Are better,
At keeping yourself whole.

Read More