Summer feels starting
Sundays are now stay-at-home days
And step-outside nights,
And nights are now shorter than the clothes we wear,
And afternoons,
We sit by the aloe vera in my little red balcony.
Tender coconut water from Prabhakaran’s cart in one hand, Still in their shells, straw-less and doused in lemon
Spill over the sides of our mouths,
While on the other hand our cigarettes burn with envy, Spilling their ash into an unplanted pot,
for once craving our attention more than we crave them. Summer feels starting in my little red balcony,
Our mouths never resting
Sharing our collective need to run,
And recollecting all the times we ran.
Sat on the cool floor,
We sing things. Our neighbours don’t complain.

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Akshay Balan is a 24-year-old writer. He has worked as a journalist, but at present, is completing his master’s in Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. His work has appeared in Agora Magazine and has been published in the anthology titled A Letter a Poem a Home by the Airplane Poetry Movement. You can find him on Instagram and Twitter.