Instagram story viewer> @echoes_and_voids> Posts

Ekparna

@echoes_and_voids

407

followers

169

following

Castles in the air.
Weaving elegies for the people and places I find myself in 🍁
Mainnn @ekparna

POSTS STORIES REELS

Perhaps, there are generous ways to say you've grown out of love: "it's getting late," "the mutton was a little salty," "can we go next week?" "red doesn't suit you," "i've been busy," "don't wait up," "i'm sorry."
there is more than one word for everything
if not in your dictionary, then definitely in mine
and we'll save the debate if it's beautiful or unnervingly deceptive, for some other time.

translation must be
the nemesis of language
so much of what is lost
could never be replaced.

february seems like a fine month
to talk about Maa and
the blue of her Kanjivaram saree,
the weight of her unshaken hope, and
her hands, her coarse, tireless hands.
She speaks in a dialect unknown
to the rest of the family,
like: cooking three different meals
but always having the leftovers,
or watering the plants on the terrace
every morning even with her bad knee.
She tells me I'm not her son,
but daughter. this is who I was
meant to be: a victim of my own story

mother, i've had unwelcomed hands
on my body i still can't seem to shake off
mother, they tell me the shame is on me
mother, victim is someone robbed of words
mother, but i want to speak.
mother, you are not who I want to be.
if the only way out is through,
i must unlearn my mother tongue
to rid me of this misery.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #books
#explore #explorepage #foryoupage #fyp #instagram #gallery #poetrycommunity #viral #poetry #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

This unrelenting need to fit in was chiseled in my bones, it keeps gnawing at me. I'm afraid I've grown to like the idea of walking that extra mile for strangers/lovers in favour of a little room for me. They tell me I always overstay my welcome.

This body desires to be desired. Desperate: in times of need.

It pains me you see, cut me open if you must but my flesh reeks of mediocrity.
I am not what I was made to be. A father wholeheartedly regrets me.

Anguish is just helpless anger I've learnt that was passed on to me. I wear it like a souvenir around my neck.

If a man is what he eats, I must be grief. I hold it well between my teeth. It's hypocrisy how I've built a religion out of my misery. Last week someone told me I'm the root cause of my own misery, and I swear I haven't stopped thinking about it.

My mistakes are on display tonight, a well curated exhibition. My sanity rots in the archives. I'd tell you it was a momentary lapse but you wouldn't believe. Tell me will you lie down on the ceramic floor and cry till your lungs need air to breathe? I know you cannot stay, I know you cannot leave.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#explore #explorepage #foryou #fy #fyp #instagram #gallery #poetrycommunity #poetry #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

things have started to
slip off my mind you know?
it starts with losing a day's meal,
a week's sleep, a part of you.
most days i drag myself out
of the bed, shower, iron my
clothes and walk at least a mile;
other days i forget to try.
i keep forgetting to put on
my seatbelt, i'm glad life doesn't
come with instruction manuals.
i cannot remember the last time
i wrote a poem but i think
it had something to do with
the uninvited transitions of life
and how i almost cannot keep up
with the strangeness of being alive.
at the age of sixteen, i thought i'll love
only one person for the rest of my life
like it was in my hands,
like i wouldn't discover new people
and rediscover a few more
in the course of time.
i am starting to forget how
September passed me by,
like a train that doesn't,
halt at any station;
but i remember this aftertaste
lingering in my mouth of
goodbyes shoved down my throat.
my friend always lets me stash
the cigarette butts in his teacup
and i can almost see the smoke
dancing in shapes of absent love;
like a way of telling me
to have hope against hope.
you see, i have a weak memory
or so i am told
but call it a blessing or curse,
i remember every stranger
i've ever touched,
every vessel that i've overbrimmed.
humans are so synonymous
to loneliness no? and at times
forgetfulness doesn't stink.
call it our collective failure if you will
but leaving is a lot less
complicated than loving.
i'm sure as hell i didn't
want to make this about
the ghost in my room
but what would i know
i have a terrible memory
or so i am told.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

Living for the hope of it all✨
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #aesthetic #selflove #golden #poem by @echoes_and_voids

it is unsettling, almost scary
how little i know about you,
about the length of pauses
between your breaths, or the
smell of your aftershave.
yet i can't seem to shake
the willingness of conversing
with you in a broken dialect,
reading between the lines of
everything you say but never mean.

this morning i saw summer
slipping away, so much so
like a feeling that never stays.
but you see, we keep knocking
at Hope's door every now and then,
only to return home empty handed;
then on a melancholic Sunday noon
Hope finds me grieving in my bed
assuring me, she'll be here
the next time I grieve again.

isn't it miraculous to have
grief stashed at the core
of your eye sockets,
shreds you to skin and bones,
don't you think?
makes me wonder, if there is
an alternate universe where
a government keeps his promises,
where kindness exists in abundance
like the stretch marks on my waist,
where winters last longer,
where Love shows up and cares.

this world is the archetype
of unsuccessful relationships
with violent wars brewing on
every street, every lane and inside us,
carefully stealing one life at a time.
and we, like distant,
uncommunicative lovers,
do not seem to give a damn.
this morning i saw the summer sun
drowning in the relentless rain,
making me wonder if these
uninvited transitions are
what keeps us sane.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

10/6/23 ✨
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

it is exhausting
to look for intimacy in
your father's grunts of disappointment
and your mother's pent-up grievances.
maybe intimacy is all the
"i love yous" and "i'm sorrys"
that you swallow down your throat,
that get lost somewhere deep
inside your gut, not knowing
their way back out of your mouth.
in a parallel context, i have learned
that closeness is another word for habit;
that if you live with someone/something
for too long, you get drunk on habitual love.
so pardon me when i tell you
i feel more intimate to grief
than i do with your hands,
it is what i carry to bed and wake up with
for a really long time now.
you see, i can't help but gape at the
strange ways of an even stranger universe:
how a love like ours
standing at the precipice of time,
feels like home nonetheless;
how a paranoid, fretful heart like mine
wants to go all in, put everything at stake
while i can, while you're still here,
while my clock does not run
five hours ahead of yours yet.
i am sorry i keep deviating
from my point. what was this about?
looking for intimacy in
the loneliest of places?
maybe intimacy is buying books
in full awareness that
you are never going to read them.
maybe intimacy is forgetting
the umbrella at home
every time it rains.
i hope you know, intimacy is sailing
to some foreign land but
finding your way back home again.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

दिल ए नादान तुझे हुआ क्या है ?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #traditional by @echoes_and_voids

remnants 🍂
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

moon child 🌙
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #moon #hues #gallery #night #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

thursday evenings i look like
the heated dinner table arguments.
sweaty hands, a glass plate slipping
every now and then.
my mother constantly tells me
not to be a rebel.
you see,
the foolish tears, or the love confessions,
the unsaid words, or the long walks
just to stay with them a little longer;
and all of this and all of that
is only an attempt at happiness.
i'm not sure if I should live with
the hope that it is all worthwhile
or the hunch that it is not.
do you know how desperately i've tried
walking out of this labyrinth?
i've lost tabs of the prices i pay
to keep the sadness at bay.
i am tired of cramming
uncertainties down my throat,
yet this stomach is always
half-empty, half-full.
i cannot give you fine iambic verses,
nor can i make this rhyme or
rhythmic in that case; but if we leave
the subtleties outside the door,
i think i ought to tell you that
i'm grateful for my mother's patience
and Plath's unabridged journals,
i'm grateful my lover forgets
his perfume on my dresses.
but i also remember the times
my insides crumbled
on the bathroom floor, and
i bled for a month when a boy
walked out the door.
this is only to say that i'm
still learning to accept that a boy who
leaves is just a boy who leaves, or
that the stitches on my belly
are nothing but scars.
i think i'm framing this in
the most unpoetic way,
but i hope you know
loss and abandonment
before you ask me to stay.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids

Calcutta'23

there are dreams buried in every last brick on these streets. the smoke lends you air to breathe. every nook, every corner weaves stories of the eyes, and loss of the heart. the scent of homemade imli achaar, damp soil, and nostalgia crawls up the balcony and enters your room through the windows ajar. you will be surprised how the tender bond with your mother's parents can compensate for the awry, damaged relationship you share with your father's side grandparents; or how so many things are broken in this city: houses, roads, hearts, yet people seem to believe they are all a part of some close-knit community. i have a bittersweet relationship with Calcutta. i have seen love and failure from close quarters. but there is something overwhelming about this city that coerces you to pay attention, wrapping you around itself like a newborn clasping your fingers, it feels too heavy to let go. a woman out there falls in love every time the traffic light turns red, what are the odds? the city has taken more than it could ever give. romanticising the lonely afternoon walks and coffee dates, did i tell you i fall in love with habits? Kolkata is one of them. you know i can't leave.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
#art #writer #artgallery #writings
#writersofinstagram #architecture
#like4likes #likeforlikes #follow4followback #followforfollowback #comment4comment #instagram #instagood #instadaily #phoneclicks #silhouette #lush #hues #gallery #pink #blue #vsco #vscogirl #portrait #portraitphotography #poetrycommunity #poetry #selflove #poetsofinstagram #poem by @echoes_and_voids