1.
The stones arranged like a staircase that once made Pocket size waterfalls along the stream course Now turned into bricks you call house So when you bring a pebble from the nearest river as souvenir You bring a child to his family funeral ground
2.
The Bible and Science lied to us Because the sunlight Doesn’t reach the place where I come from I’ve lived my entire life in a glass bottle Searching for its neck Hoping to see the sun at the tunnel’s end But on this planet, they call me a rolling stone Because someone’s always shaking my world
3.
You don’t know how many trees I have cut To build a ladder So it can help me climb
Out of the bottle But the ladder won’t take my weight And now the forest hates me too
4.
According to the World Health Organization 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression And the remaining 7 billion people are blind On days depression goes out for a walk I don’t blame them Depression is not as fatal as common cold And running nose will always be a better symptom of any disease Than anxiety attack at 2 AM
5.
You told me you’d stay If I gave you the key to my closet But you stole my skeletons and left And suddenly everyone wants A piece of boneless meat for dinner
6.
If it hasn’t rained for years And the villagers decide A lamb must be sacrificed To please the stones in the temple They all look at me Like church priests preying on young boys
7.
You took the last seed of my skin I was saving to grow next monsoon Hoping my new body grows a heart Heart that doesn’t have a hole Doesn’t need a surgery I cannot afford You were mine Field and I sleep walked
8.
I will make a bad astronaut Who’d tell his co-workers he’s going out To repair the solar panels but instead Detaches himself in space Because I have no one to come back for
9.
My permanent address is the state of sleep I take liver medicines for dinner On Tuesdays, I collect my doctors’ prescriptions And put them up on a wall So one day everyone can see Science cannot save us all
10.
A stone once called me stone hearted I told him A rolling stone gathers no moss
Hailing from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, Gaurav Juyal is a Journalism student at English and Foreign Languages (EFL) University, Hyderabad. He has performed his poems in many colleges across Delhi and venues like Tabula Beach Café, Antisocial, Piano Man Jazz Club, and Kunzum Café to name a few. He is known for his distinct wordplay and metaphors, triple entrendres, and absurd poems. He hopes to travel and write content for wildlife documentaries one day.
