Utterly Forgotten

I have been trying for so long to get your attention.
But you are busy arranging bonsai in Burma teak cupboards to notice.
I bring a few words in a velvet envelope but you put it away without a glance in your rosewood box.
I dive after it and I am soon lost in the myriad cubbyholes and draws and secret walkways. 
I forget why I'm there in the first place.
You shut the box and I'm lost in quiet and dust. 
The dust of centuries and ghosts of the past breathe gently next to me.
What does it feel like to be almost forgotten, to be utterly cast aside?
The ghosts know and now they speak.
In whispers. 
Amongst themselves. 
I am not even worthy of a banshee’s shriek.

Master class

Silence is status quo and of course, you should know, my love, the best in the business of building glaciers and chopping calm waters.
You are so desperate that you put your faith in chance. 
Chances and fates and whims and wishes will take you where you are desperate to go. 
And everything else will follow.
You believe you're here for love but the room is too large for you. 
The distance is too much. And you need to touch. Albeit not strange as such.
The ice in my heart and yours has traveled to our inner core and we make angry cold sex and that's as lonely as it gets.
A victim of circumstance. 
A prisoner with the key. 
A seeker with a roadmap. 
But you don't seek or wish for or desire me.

The clichéd poem of clichés Or This Women’s Day, a guide to women etiquette

do not say:

you’ve put on weight.

you’ve lost weight.

you look lovely.

you look tired.

you’re not colouring your hair!

oh look at all that grey!

don’t tell me- you’re one of those feminist types?

do not say:

you’ve filled out in all the right places.

do not ask:

so, when are you getting married?

so when you having kids?

a Ph.D is more important than children?

Surely you can do both?

are you doing nothing with your doctorate?

this is what you did engineering for?

Handy tips to speak to issue-less women

do not say:

you are selfish.

own it.

well, you never wanted children anyway.

wow, you must have so much free time.

being a mother is the true meaning of being a woman.

kids aren’t the be-all of life, so just chill!

you’ll regret it.

do not ask:

why did you get married then?

any good news?

have you seen a doctor?

is it you?

what’s his sperm count like?

are you doing it right?

would you like a doctor recommendation?

you’re not really a woman unless you’ve given birth to kids, you know that, right?

who will look after you when you’re older?

do not say:

It’s this whole modern woman idea, new-fangled notions to start a family late, that’s ruining our country. Too busy with career and studies, to do what you’re meant to do. If your mother had thought that, you wouldn’t even have been here.

maybe you’ll have children when we are dead.

i hope this year at least you’ll make it a truly happy new year for us.

how old are you?

do not say:

you don’t want any responsibilities, that’s why.

we’ll all help you when the baby arrives. just have it.

only a son’s child is a true heir, not a daughter’s.

do not ask:

who will you leave all your books to?

(Based on true events.)