Stay: A Memoir of Disillusionment-Annie- Ananya Nayak

Stay: A Memoir of Disillusionment- Annie

A seething dragon of vapour

Rising from the vermillion shadow cast on the coffee cup

I move my hand through the wisps almost in a stupor

I feel no warmth.

I wonder if we’re all just-

A sea of souls under a sky of osmosis

Taking in

Feelings and thoughts and opinions and suppressing our

projected psychosis

A sky full of stars or empty lights on a faded screen ?

A song during monsoon on a broken chair on which you lean

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

You grasp the warm coffee cup, the skies harken,

It’s raining but it’s like your ears haven’t awoken,

It’s muted, it's faded it’s

Time itself.

Drawing out the edges on a grey canvas-

The cup is streaming but there’s no heat, a net without prey.

No red no ember no blue no yellow in the sky only the stratus

A paler, emptier grey.

If I just stay-

In the fabric of diminishing sunsets-

Perhaps I could imagine the warmth as well, feel the sunsets’ beat,

one cloud of red

but is it warm or a collective matrix of pixel assets

of seamless grey indexed in crescents

of lies and promises to effigies of-

effigies of

rotating sunsets in the future past

slideshows of clouds

of promises that are grey and collapsing boxes of dreams

Taxes and credits and ever lit shrouds

Seas of people and waves of apologies,

Extended deadlines and taxes and

Promises.

Promises to yourself promises to imaginary effigies,

promises to sunsets that are grey,

But perhaps you could reach them if you stay?

Perhaps you could steal a vein of heat that you caught,

at that old soup deli that never changed-

That lived in a time and not in a place

That lived in memories from the future

Perhaps if you reversed the pace.

The flicker of a candle not too far away,

of time encroaching and closing

Shrinking, a box made of dreams, caging

Holding your life in a cacophony of strings,

Protesting the clean grey skies

The boxes, the futures, the sunsets that are canvases and lies

The repeat and scroll over and over and over

And over and over as long as you lean.

Lean on the chair with grey in your eyes

Do you want to stop leaning?

You spy a fabric behind the skies

Holding together the curtain of clouds

Is it cold and steely and soulless behind the digital skies ?

In that it wraps and embeds my dreams around in a stitch of seamless

decisions that all lead to debits and credits

Checks and balances

Promises and receipts

and promises to effigies

To effigies of the future to uncertainties

tame uncertainties that are burning with ember within

neatly coloured boxes of grey

boxes that line up within the screen.

and if you just stay.

stay.

stay.

stay.

stay at your rectangular desk of teak wood that is so neatly grained

with your fourth journal that is slightly stained

with promises to effigies of the past

Promises to tears that were never cast

It feels cool and steely and neat and comfortable and

grey

and if you just stay

if you just stay-

In the fabric of diminishing sunsets

one cloud of red

but is it warm or a collective matrix of pixel assets

of seamless grey indexed in crescents

of lies and promises to effigies of-

effigies of

rotating sunsets in the future past

slideshows of clouds

of promises that are grey and collapsing boxes of dreams

Taxes and credits and ever lit shrouds

Of loans and checks and delis of soups that lean

that lean in to the chair at the teakwood desk

that ran perfect circles of grains within the stains

Of your journal that stared at

the greyed edges of the sunset clouds in disdain

A sea of souls under a sky of osmosis

Taking in

Feelings and thoughts and opinions and suppressing our

Own psychosis.

Seas of people and waves of apologies,

Extended deadlines and taxes and

Promises.

Promises to yourself promises to imaginary effigies,

promises to sunsets that are grey,

But perhaps you could reach them if you stay?

Perhaps you could steal a vein of heat that you caught,

at that old soup deli that never changed-

That lived in a time and not in a place

That lived in memories from the future

Perhaps if you reversed the pace.

The flicker of a candle not too far away

of time encroaching and closing

Shrinking, a box made of dreams, caging

and if you just stay.

Holding your life in a cacophony of strings,

Protesting the clean grey skies

The boxes, the futures, the sunsets that are canvases and lies

The repeat and scroll over and over and over

And over and over as long as you lean

and if you just stay

stay.

stay.

stay.

In that it wraps and embeds my dreams around in a stitch of seamless-

decisions that all lead to debits and credits

Checks and balances

Promises and receipts

and promises to effigies

To effigies of the future to uncertainties

tame uncertainties that are burning with ember within

neatly coloured boxes of grey

boxes that line up within the screen.

just stay

stay at your rectangular desk of teak wood that is so neatly grained

with your fourth journal that is slightly stained

with promises to effigies of the past

Promises to tears that were never cast

It feels cool and steely and neat and comfortable and

grey

and if you just stay

stay and watch the grey filled reality

of a soup deli in the rain of

Taxes and

Credits and boxes of dreams that promise you effigies

Promise you effigies that you can promise to

that stay in a time not in a place

away from a time when

you didn’t stop your slowing pace.

of-

blinding hexadecimals

Screeching pixels that promise you

Incremental extensions in cardinals

that tick away at your credits

And debits and taxes and

and

Flowers that are sketches of grey and not real and

Sunflowers in a coffee cup gone cold under

On top of my teakwood desk with tears falling

On journals that write about the clouds asunder

cloud below bellowing

stay stay stay

stay stay stay

stay stay stay

stay Annie

stay within the leaning chair

and make your promises to effigies and credit your taxes to

Sliding clouds that roll to uncertain futures

That colour crimson scribbles around

skyscrapers and windowless fixtures

Fixtures that ~inthatit~ that wrap and embeds my dreams around in a stitch of seamless

blinding hexadecimals

Screeching pixels that promise you

Incremental extensions in cardinals

Sliding clouds that roll to uncertain futures

That colour crimson and

Fixtures that ~inthatit~ that wrap and embeds my dreams around in a stitch of seamless-

cloud below bellowing

stay stay stay

stay stay stay

stay stay stay

stay Ananya

slideshows of moving screens and I

What if i just leaned in

[And tore the slide show]

the sky perhaps it’s not real perhaps

the incremental effigies are clouds pre-recorded

future memories reeled in a ordered

balance sheet of choices

And if if i could just

not let the flicker i caught slip between the nuances

and maybe the cup, it can crack a bit and the journal can turn a page

and the desk is fibrous not just a entry stage-

and if i close my eyes I can see the red, true red not

an hexadecimal array of lies

.. .

.

.

Of balance sheets and credits and debits and boxes of dreams pre-recorded cages of effigies of delis that promise you sunsets not grey

That perfectly wrappppppp ararouroundround-

Stay.

Stay stay oh won’t you stay

Stay and look at the violet sunset

Albeit manufactured albeit a default asset

won’t you stay, Annie, won’t you stay, and clear your debits and credits?

the cup could be warm if i tell you i saw steam

That I saw the fog on the window that i screamed

When i touched the handle because it was too hot

It really was red believe me and-

To Annie:

Stay within the sand

I’ll erase your checks and balances.

I’ll erase your pre-recorded dreams

I’ll erase your disappointment at the red

hey look at the blue dusklight and how it gleams ?

could you take your broken chair

And once again lean ?

lean on your teakwood desk chair (edited)

take on the boxes of collapsing dreams and checks and balances and I’ll change the sunset for you

From red to violet to orange to blue

And I’ll add a deli at every subway and you’ll see at least one sunbird coming from the salty waters and

Every now and then I’ll give you a glimpse of a steel fixture that staggers

In this paradise of convoluted grey

i will promise you effigies that you can promise to

in a draped out sunset of blue and grey in

If you don't

Question why they are grey

I’ll manufacture a steam draft for you, Annie

from your cup if you so wish

if you so wish it to feel the ink in the line.

I’ll draw it for you

i will draw in the outlines and stitch the edges with glue

and wrap around the

Sliding clouds that roll to uncertain futures

That colour crimson and

Fixtures that ~inthatit~ that wrap and embeds my dreams around in a stitch of seamless-

If you could just take me at my word

I’ll make the saffron seem real

and Annie you could you could ignore the steel

what can I not give you in this effigy of promises

Of futures and pasts and credits and balances

Screeching pixels that promise you

stay and watch the grey filled reality

Sunflowers in a coffee cup gone cold under

decisions that all lead to debits and credits

Checks and balances

Promises and receipts

and promises to effigies

To effigies of the future to uncertainties

tame uncertain-

I’ll write you a world here within the grey lines, Ananya

first i could write you:

A sky full of stars or a empty lights on a faded screen ?

A song during monsoon on a broken chair on which you lean

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

and violet sunsets and wedding feasts

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

The sound of cicadas a cruise on the beach

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

A million little butterflies flying over a sea of orchids

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

a travel blog a parfait of kiwis and mangoes

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

A June wedding that you always wanted with the tulips all picked

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

maybe a song that made you cry umm i could see your lover standing by and

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

By the rose gardens and looking into your eyes

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

Except it’s not the chair that is broken.

Except it’s not the desk that is broken.

Except it’s not the cup that is broken.

Except it’s not the sunset that is broken.

broken broken broken chairs and assets of unresolved glitches ?

and hexadecimal arrays and i can’t control the ASCII that seeps from my pen at my journal that sits on the teakwood desk

violet sunset clouds that gleam with their stitches

the stitches in plain disarray, staring

I always knew there were stitches in the skies

I always held the cup that could not give me

warmth but only steam drawings

Except it’s not the cup that is broken.

Except it’s not the cup that is broken.

Except it’s not the cup that is broken.

Except it’s not the sunset that is broken.