© Illustration by INJECTION - Alicia Lupieri
"Share Your Story" Poem submitted by Mansi Darbhamulla, 21 years, from Hyderabad, India
The Barren Abyss
After you scroll past several posts on Instagram - some quirky, some funny and some people doing things and mostly anything to pass time.
Do you ever just get scared of closing the virtual tour and snapping back to reality?
And once you do, does it take you a few seconds to recollect every teeny detail of your surroundings? And like some vortex pulling you in, and falling out of it.
Once back to your same old creaky bed and the cold breeze from the open window.
Everything mediocre and nothing to feel grateful for, you fall on the draggy pillows carrying trails of melancholy along.
A sudden slump of sadness leaping out of your eyes- taking the form of bare nothings.
You just lie on the bed accompanied by the naked truth of loneliness. Staring at the never-ending abyss in front of you, finding comfort in its arms.
Wiping away the invisible nullity, you try to take a few blinks before dawn. But can I say that you're hopeful?
Like sunflowers rotting in mushy lands and frostbites of a brutal winter. You just lie there, hoping for anything but blankness.