You end up getting used to it.
Upsetting? Yes, yes. Every time.
But then, you’re getting used to it.
My first was when I first arrived –
The very day I got this room.
Some woman down in 13C.
They wheeled her out along this hall.
I could have gotten 13C
Had I arrived a few days late.
It has the garden view, that room.
And then it took some months again
Before they wheeled another out.
I knew that one. He picked his teeth.
The kind of teeth you wished he lost.
He never did. Not even one.
Oh no, no. I don’t make new friends.
They want to ask you everything.
And worse, they tell you everything.
And then they try to sell their Gods.
I’m used to books and sitting still.
It’s lonelier to talk and know
That no one gets you in this place.
I sleep and exercise alright.
Unless the virus gets me now,
I think I have a decade still.
I have enough to pay for it.
My sons will whine and drone about
When I become a bill to them.
I’m living more lives daily here.
The library is full of porn.
They call it Literotica.
Donation boxes full of it.
God bless the sinners of the world.
Whatever God they suck up to.
I wouldn’t mind a new romance.
Though I would skip the talking part.
The guy in 7A is mute.
I’ve seen him see me fingering.
It isn’t what it used to be.
But, maybe, if a man…who knows?
You see? It’s not that I can’t talk.
It’s just that no one gets me here.
You got me started with that smile.
You sure you will not like it here?
Here. Video call me anytime.
I got a tripod yesterday.
It hurts to hold the phone for long.
Minakhi Misra 