I have learned the geometry of rooms that were not built to include me,
the way two people make a wall with their bodies without meaning to,
the radius of a laugh that only opens for certain people.
I am still measuring.
I dreamed I walked into a room and became part of the furniture.
Someone set their coat across my shoulders and left a drink beside my hand.
The wallpaper merger across my spine
but nobody noticed anything strange.
By midnight I could tell which laugh belonged to whom
even from across the room.
I knew who would leave first.
Whose cigarette would burn untouched.
Which goodbye was a promise and which was already past keeping.
The chairs were stacked before I left. Someone switched off the lights.
In the dark, the room looked finished.
Only then did I fit inside.
This is so beautiful- Thank you
Hey Aadya, winner of week 2 :)
I wanna say this was something like delicate, observant, and kinda painful. What I enjoyed the most is probably the way you made exclusion feel architectural, if you understand what I mean. I'm beginning to notice the kind of style you have and I like it. It was not just about being ignored, but about learning the shape of rooms, the distance between people, and the math of who gets included without trying.
You say “the radius of a laugh that only opens for certain people" captures the exact about social spaces, where belonging can feel almost physical. You're not only watching people laugh. You're figuring out and measuring the invisible border around it.
I also really liked the dream of becoming furniture, because it made the feeling of being unseen really visually and that really added to your piece. Okay, the last thing few things I want to point out are the coat across your shoulders, the drink beside the hand, the wallpaper across the spine, which all made the speaker feel present as an object but absent as a person. Which I'm guessing was your goal haha.
Overall this was intelligent work just like your last piece :)
- Ajmal