Neerja Deswal
Am I
Lying on the beach
Intoxicated by ocean air
Like Dorothy In the Poppy fields
Am I
Submerged
Breathing underwater
Seeing the elusive unseen
Am I
Halfway asleep
Lost in shallow dreams
Paralyzed, unable to wake up
Am I
Hallucinating
Floating weightlessly
Imagining the truth in a lie
Am I
Forgotten
Erased from memory
Like an unspoken, dark secret
Am I
Subliminal
Betwixt and between
Like a phantom, reborn
Am I
A fallacy
Neither here nor elsewhere
Like a Kafkaesque nightmare
Maybe I am nothing
Maybe I am all this … and more
What if I am everything