Because I’m not Shakespeare (Upon being asked how I’m doing.)

by Vaishnavi Pusapati

I am not Shakespeare, so I don’t have all the words

Image credit: Arun Anoop on Unsplash

in the world to tell you that

I am sad, so sad that for too long

light hurts my eyes, my skin.

It is dark under the lamp.

I am sat in the darkness under the lamp.

All this light escapes me like oil does water,

like I’m shaded under an umbrella in the rain.

It is too bad I am not Shakespeare, upon being asked

how I am doing, I realise I’m not invisible,

and that somehow makes things worse.

This practised silence is an old act

and like every actor, I take this character home.

***

Vaishnavi Pusapati

Vaishnavi Pusapati is a physician writer. She has been previously published in redrosethorns, Roanoke Review, Prole, InkPantry among others. Her purpose in life is to publish a collection of her poems or a novella, someday.