Guatemala

Srishti Aishwarya Shrivastava

I choose to be in Guatemala
Near the white wall
And rustic blue table
Strings of guitar that I don’t know how to play
And a bottle of beer
And in this moment, I’m fine.
Like threads of silk
And fine mulmul cotton
Roomy stuff I’m wearing
What now I like to call sustainable fashion
No, I’m lying, im wearing Dorothy Perkins
And I’m pretty much materialistic

But I’m in Guatemala
The country I have never been
And I imagine it’s streets
Like quaint cobbled alleyways
Though I never bothered being mesmerized
For the ones near my house
Or the village of Shahpur Jaat
I’m listing to songs on billboard religion
And hearing of its politics
It’s funny how fiction
Can shape our reality
And kill people
The thing that is supposed to save them
It’s disturbing
And at times I can’t breathe
Over typographical error or fullstop I missed.

Black hole has been photographed
And I’m in Guatemala
The country I have never been
To get outside my own personal black hole
The one that even I haven’t clearly seen
All I know is that I spiral down
And don’t know my whereabouts

But I’m in Guatemala
And I’m drinking local liquor
Staring at sky
And imagining people
Eating fried eggs
The way I never had
And being a stranger
Someone I have never met
And today I say, hello you.
You will be fine,
Be in Guatemala.

 


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