I Tried To Stay Away

By Rajnish Mishra

I tried to stay away, from poetry,

write not in verse but prose.

 

Four months I managed to stay cleansed

of verse, four months exactly,

not a day more, nor less.

 

Then it happened,

the form at least.

I know now that I can’t choose it,

it chooses me.

 

I write,

I live.

 

It’s not easy: to live, to write

and then, I need at least one

good thing to live on.

 

Poetry, I say, is as harmless

as any other addiction,

its price, one life.

 

Rajnish Mishra is a poet, writer, translator and blogger born and brought up in Varanasi, India and now in exile from his city. His work originates at the point of intersection between his psyche and his city. He edits PPP Ezine.