Skip to content
logo
  • Read
  • Comics & Cartoons
  • Videos
  • Submissions
    • General
    • Competitions
  • Membership
  • About Us
  • Log Out
  • Log In
  • Register
Search
Log In Register
logo
Search

Last Breaths of a Language

By Subhash Sundaravadivelu

Illustration by Allen B Thangkhiew

Wrinkled, drooping, slouching language

Sat in the body of the last speaker

Ready to disperse into

Air, ground, water and the void

With all those memories

A boy limping back home

A drop of blood flowing down the knees

Matched a drop of tear down the cheek

Waiting to be consoled by mother

And hear her say,

“It is okay, you will be fine”

A girl chewing food,

Squeezing chilly between the molars

An explosion of heat from teeth to lips

To throat to nose,

A dance, a fit, a cry

“Ahhhh water water”

A man in love for the 1st time

In a deep embrace 

Nose placed behind his lover’s neck

Inhaling in the hair, dried sweat and body’s scent

Finding no words to express

And those words, those songs

Taken from the closet

Only when there was a birth 

Wedding, festival or death

And now all those memories

Which walked went vented whined

Still smiled sadly someday

But those memories are taking their last breaths.


Share:

Posted On: July 20, 2024
← Previous
→ Next
  • Read
  • Comics & Cartoons
  • Videos
  • Submissions
    • General
    • Competitions
  • Membership
  • About Us
  • Log Out
  • Log In
  • Register
logo
  • Submissions
  • Terms & Conditions
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 Half and One