why must i sleep at night?
Photo: Karan Madhok
Poetry: ‘couldn’t i unsign the social contract, / a sunbathing vampire, a genie unshackled, / a pair of eyes that awake to starry nights painted / on the bedroom ceiling?’
couldn’t my days, too, have the night’s luminosity?
couldn’t the shimmering beams of dawn whisk me away
to a more colourful place? couldn’t i shed my skin
and wear yours at naashta-time? couldn’t i season my
omelettes with masalas that don’t yet exist? couldn’t
newton’s apple have landed elsewhere, actions without
opposite reactions? couldn’t i skip over
the cycles of prescribed bliss, fly into a black hole
to spit at infinity and return unscathed?
couldn’t i stroll into a hedge maze, lost in lovely
labyrinths? couldn’t i unsign the social contract,
a sunbathing vampire, a genie unshackled,
a pair of eyes that awake to starry nights painted
on the bedroom ceiling? couldn’t i whisper dreamsongs
out the ringing alarm, stir magnificent nightmares
in the morning chai, cook-a-roo-koo to the vacuum
of space, leave rooms with the door ajar, manifestos
printed in invisible ink, till shivering toes
peek outside the warmest razai, sleepwalk counter clock wise
to an Earth off its axis? shouldn’t there be something
more than this?
***
Karan Madhok is a writer, journalist, and editor of The Chakkar. His debut novel A Beautiful Decay (Aleph Book Company) was published in October 2022. His creative work has appeared in Epiphany, Gargoyle, The Literary Review, The Bombay Review, The Lantern Review, and the anthology A Case of Indian Marvels. He is the founder of the Indian basketball blog Hoopistani and has contributed to NBA India, SLAM Magazine, Fifty Two, FirstPost, and more. You can find him on Twitter: @karanmadhok1 and Instagram: @karanmadhok.
