Author: Jiyaa Khanna

The sky has been breaking down today
and my slippers are wet from the labor of carrying on
despite it all.
I walk carefully, with my head bowed, arms locked
avoiding stepping on
tadpoles, tiny frogs and other little creatures
in love with the sky’s grief
before realizing they aren’t here, they’re absent.
Perhaps they too could not bear
to be away from our home.
The rain beats down harder and harder and harder.
I continue walking,
skipping, jumping-
still believing in
the presence of something
that does not exist.