Online

 Online –

Both of us on our screens
Talking to others
Or maybe looking
At each other’s profiles,
As we stare at the six letter word
That flashes in front of our eyes,
Filling us with the question –
‘Are you talking to someone else, tonight?’
A question we can’t ask,
Because we’ve lost those rights.
Yes, I talk to someone else
And so do you.
And just like this,
So do our new someones
Think about the someones
From their past, too
But I still stare at your name
On my phone’s screen
Wishing we still had that telepathy
Where you’d know I’m waiting
For you to drop a text, maybe.
But it’s dead, like most millennial relationships
So I stare instead –
At a screen, once in a while
Hoping that maybe
You too, stare back at me.

-Arunima Gururani is a 24-year-old based in Delhi and is passionate about social justice issues and fiction.