Gustav Janouch, Conversations With Kafka

Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka

It's been raining all day. I'm not old yet but I'm not young either- stranded in a limbo of young adult. All my friends are cities away, and I'm wondering who I am. My friends are photos and texts. My friends are video calls on Friday nights, most anyways. My friends are one call away but my bones remember the miles between us, hundreds- even thousands. I'm not old yet, but my shoulders bear the weight of countless goodbyes. I'm not young either. I can place a call but I stare at the rain. I can send a text but I write a stupid poem.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The Flesh I Burned

Sky or the canvas?

"Why the sky refuses,

to lose its colour,

get bleached,

and portray what our hearts feel?

Isn't this a betrayal,

on her part,

to refuse us the luxury,

to display our hearts to the world,

and drown itself in our misery?

Why it has to be so unbothered,

uncaring,

and bring new mornings each day,

making us stand out in the happy looking world?"

"How many hearts must she have?

Before she can feel ya cry?

And how many deaths must she die,

to show your blood on the sky?

Sometimes, your hearts want to laugh till they cry,

Sometimes, your hearts want to lay down and die.

One sky is common for countless of hearts,

Ain't she no illusion, no imagination of arts,

that she will look a mysterious mess of paints,

And like a lovely mother, hear each of yours complaints!"

-Vanshika

They said I won't fit here being the person I am. I decided to change things. Now I own a corner where I not only fit, but happily live.

I am writing an enemies to lovers trope. The characters are me and myself.