Nothingness
Some days are like days
where sorrow creeps out
from every nook and corner
trying to pull you in
like hoarfrost on the succulents
the bright shining death
shining through your smiles
devouring you
slowly but surely
like the snake taking you all in
and spitting you out
your hands are covered in sorrows
devoid of you lines
you look into your empty hands
mirroring your life
when the pain creeps up on you
death shrouded like a mystery
where nothingness
is a well-acquainted feeling
the lonesome feeling
you ever felt so
deeply in your pores
Loneliness Begets Second Chance
The half-finished wine glass on the windowsill. A pile of books collecting dust and memories in equal –
measures. Loneliness screams through every nook and corner of my room. Dying Lilies in the broken –
vase with its serrated ends gaping for its last breath in the muted stench of the water. The paint –
scraping off the walls is a reminder of the scratched pellicle. Remembrance is a metaphor for –
acceptance. The unfinished sweater once tangled around the bony fingers of my granny now remains –
orphaned at the base of the couch. Dangling specks of dust in the ray of light, a measure of the –
congruous amalgamation of the despair and agony seeded in the porous soul of this deserted room. –
They are huddled together for warmth for the company. The parquet floor still waits for its due from –
the summer sun and begs for its apricity. A humbled heart strives for its sustenance. The sun-soaked –
mahogany desk has a pile of unsent letters. The longing and unfulfilled desires piled high up as my –
disappointment. Waiting to be acknowledged, waiting to be read. Skewed painting on the walls waits –
for its due, a second chance. A hand to wipe off the dust, a gesture of love, a gesture of acceptance.
The Uprising
The calm and serenity of my demeanor
is a facade for those hunger laced eyes
who like scavengers are circling me
poking me to get a rise out of me.
Their indifference towards me
Their sharp razor words are slicing and shredding me
Indolent words laced with blatant ignorance
that not all hearts are sliced the same way.
Our hunger speaks in different ways and languages
not known to everyone. Not aware of this, they keep poking
& my anger rises like a steaming kettle till I scream
like a whistling pot failing to keep my thunder within.
She Never Had the Chance
Those warm untimely hugs
Precious smiles with a caring persona
Buried under the string of the incessant fights
And the trauma which hides within the fold of her skin
Breathing, slithering, and coiled in the corner of her room
Waiting to strike at any given moment
Pain which traveled and mold and morphs
every fleeting moment of her childhood
Those giggles and laughter lost in the meaningless
fights and incessant screaming across the room
There is pain carved in every corner of her room
She still waits for her share of happiness
In the house now which she never calls home
Nine years old and she never had a chance.
Juxtaposed
Suspended between the intangible state of dream
and reality a state so profound yet so surreal
the tangible moments slip through my open palms
as the gossamer truth of realities weaves a noose
around me tightening like a storm around my waist
with each repetition cutting close to the wounds
pushing deeper and deeper till the flesh gives in.
This juxtaposition state of carnal and survival desires
are the secret language of the soul when it
whispers closely to you, a hushed whisper with
a heaving bosom and a bated breath
syncopating surreptitiously with our heartbeats
ONCE MORE
The deep long treacherous shadows
cast on the bedroom wall
the hallucinations of the clock
the monsters lingering in the hall
the clever and long nails
of the desires clawing their way in
your deep supple soul
and with an ashen mouth
soaked with the crimson
a touch of your tangerine love
I ask for the forgiveness,
Once more.
Sitting in the pews
reading my verse from the holy book
trying to absolve my sins
by dipping my
knuckles in the holy water
shedding my sins
and lecherous desire
to clean my tainted soul
Once more.
Stretching my legs
and arching my back
to stand in the long
wretched queues of the soup kitchen
looking away from
those empty glances
scraping away the curse and abuse
from my sullen mouth
washing it again
to make it pure
Once more.
I stand for forgiveness
in front of my creator
and a devil on the shoulder
perched and feeling at ease
crooning my neck as he, please
I’ll be the god’s holy son
until I stab that knife
in your chest
Once more.
That grim smile on the
devil’s face
I’ll fall down from my grace and
ask for forgiveness
to be absolved again
like a hamster on a wheel
Once more.
BLIND MEN
Our whole life is nothing but a sine wave
the rise and fall of our deeds decide our fate
the crest and trough of our wealth
decides our relations and friends
The ups and downs of our life
decide about the strength
and grit in our character
and the lows and highs in the life
tests our faith.
Anybody showing you the mirror
otherwise is a bad reflection of reality
a pseudo-truth
a distorted reality
based on the dark and dystopian future
which will suffocate any
hope for your fragile
dreams.
will prejudice your dignity
You are on a rollercoaster with no breaks
the speed and the place
where you stop
decodes your faith
so stop believing in destiny
and pull your own breaks
carve those lines in stones
let them see the daybreak
Cause no one can ever tell you
who to believe in
we are all, in the end,
a group of blind men
trying to feel the actuality
a face of the stark reality
we are living in.
SILENT CHAOS
Sometimes there are
hushed whispers under the bated breath
sometimes there is a cacophony
the dissonance
drowning our minds
leaving us numb and frozen
sometimes the laughter gets lost
floating through the trees
frozen on the moss
on a cold misty morning
a frozen ghost
Sometimes a loud thud
when the old chestnut
breaks down and opens itself to the wild
love is always a sacred offering
sometimes the scars tell the whole story
untouched yet cutting through the bone
sometimes the silence seeps in the wrinkles
those folds on the skin
bereft of any emotion
Sometimes a pale face
holds the mystery for the closed palms
and sometimes the crow’s feet
carries the laughter for eons
a still face holds the mirror to life
look closely at the reflection
floating in the swirls
of the deep those obsidian eyes
sometimes silence screams the loudest
Choked
Your vapid thoughts
lodged in my throat
stuck between
the ashen dreams and the reality
like an illusion
a mirage,
like an impossibility of the summer rain
Your pungent thoughts
settled like arid leaves
with its stench carried
throughout my body
those capillaries of failed promises
like the bowl of milk left overnight
left to curdle
baring the stench of a failed ambition
a continuous struggle of my existence
I’m feverishly trying
to regurgitate these sullen thoughts of you
from my reticent mind and screaming soul
a moment sublime:
to breathe fully
to finally feel alive.
That Searing Pain
How can a fleeting emotion
a mere mention of your name
or a visage bearing a semblance of yours
torments and rattles my soul
the searing pain hasn’t stopped yet
the blood hasn’t
chipped or dried yet
those memories
hasn’t turned into a bookmark
a thing of the past
an affair to be forgotten
that smile
still not foreign to me
as the memory of
your warm embrace too
these old memories
with pointy and dagger precision
splits and shreds me to pieces
the pain comes flashing back
as I trample the
unburied consciousness of time
moments so precious
spent in the company of yours
It leaves me baffled
startled how much
a mere sense of your presence
can rattle me from within
aching from the core.
BROTHERHOOD
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
We are all broken, crumbled
rounded again
made from the same clay
caked and baked in the same
unforgiving oven
We all have cracks in us
from where the light gets in
frayed at the border
pulling apart at the seams
Peeling off and
breaking down into pieces
in all our miseries
We are all the same
living under the same
ashen cloudless sky
and blue moon in its reverie
Breathing the same air
swooning over the same
melody of the souls
and crooning our necks
to the same broken chords
in unison, we roll
We all are the same
laughing and cracking up
With welled up eyes
With bruises we endear
Getting stabbed by the same knife
bloodied by the same bullet
cast creed or religion
doesn’t seem to discriminate
Or beg to differ
We are all the same
same heartbeat
sliced and splintered
in million pieces
and the same God we worship
holding books with different verses
We all are the same
from within
laughing at our scars
with abject profundity.
We are brothers
together we shall live.
SCARRED MOON
Untethered,
Unhinged
like the other half of the moon
denied existence by its bright half
a deception like no other.
We sing the songs of the moon
of its beauty and serenity
while the other hides the darkness
the scars,
rejected by its own self
never been a sonnet written about it
bathed in the beauty of the gibbous moon
when the crescent white
is engulfing the other half
devoured slowly and completely forgotten
the night scowls and screams
at the injustice.
I sit and sing my songs of despair
imbued in the silken moonlight
while the two halves
continues to struggle
More About Megha Sood
Megha Sood is an Assistant Poetry Editor for the Literary Journal MookyChick and a Literary Partner with the “Life in Quarantine” Stanford University, USA. Her works are widely published in literary journals and anthologies including Better than Starbucks, Gothamist, Poetry Society of New York, Madras Courier, Borderless Journal, WNYC Studios, Kissing Dynamite, American Writers Review, FIVE:2: ONE, Quail Bell, Dime show review, etc. Three-time State-level Winner NAMI Dara Axelrod NJ Poetry Contest 2018/2019/2020 and First Place National Winner Spring Robinson Lit Prize 2020, Finalist in Pangolin Poetry Prize 2019, Adelaide Literary Award 2019 and Erbacce Prize 2020, Nominated for the iWomanGlobalAwards 2020 and many more. Works selected numerous times by Jersey City Writers group and Department of Cultural Affairs for the Arts House Festival. Editor of ( “The Medusa Project, Mookychick) and ( “The Kali Project,” Indie Blu(e) Press). Chosen twice as the panelist for the Jersey City Theater Center Online Series “Voices Around the World”.She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16
Description of the Projects/Chapbook
- Co-Editing the “The Medusa Project” by Mookychick, UK Based Arts and Literary
Journal
“The Medusa Project” drives inspiration from the magical winged warrior and a Greek
Gorgon “Medusa” who rose above all the struggles, atrocities, and abuse in her
patriarchal society and carved a niche for her, finally becoming a beacon of strength and
resilience for generations to come. This anthology celebrates the 100 years of the woman
suffragist movement in the United State which led to the 19th amendment of the US
contribution allowing women to vote.
This anthology is a deep exposition of that pain and angst carried by the women for
generations. It encapsulates the entire angst, rage, and passion and transforms it into
thirty poems, mixed with art, poetry, fiction, and the magical rituals spreading throughout
this e-book. Released on October 31, 2020, this e-book is free to download. You can
know more about the e-anthology here. - Co-editing the “The Kali Project” by Indie Blu(e) Publishing, USA
An anthology of Indian women writing poetry. The Kali Project is a once-in-a-lifetime
speak-easy for Indian women of today. Their struggles, their triumphs, their truth.
The Kali Project is another example of setting alight the inequality of women in India by
sharing their talented voices with an English-speaking audience. We want to introduce to
our Western readers, those talents within India who speak with the same fierce voice and
share the same goal of equality and an end to oppression. Indian writing has gravitas and
brutal honesty that has existed for millennia, influencing poets from around the world.
The Kali Project has brought together the voices of Indian women speaking their truths.
Be it infanticide, family violence, the emerging LGBTQ community in India, or the
marital inequity Indian women face, these struggles are penned in exquisite poetry to
enlighten and bring awareness. You can know more about the project here. The
anthology will be published around January 2021 - Literary Partner in “Life in Quarantine” Project by CESTA (Center for Textual
and Spatial Analysis)
Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is a Digital Humanities initiative
sponsored by the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) at Stanford
University. Launched in March 2020 by three doctoral students and a group of
undergraduates, LiQ is an online community platform that addresses the transformations
we’re experiencing in the age of COVID-19.
At the core of the project, there is an online historical archive that houses personal written
accounts in a wide range of languages from various countries. These stories document
how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the lives of people from various backgrounds
across the globe. Additionally, our website provides a space for different types of creative
expression; personal stories, creative writing, blogs, and visual art.
The website is designed as an open education resource for students, educators,
governments, organizations, and businesses to promote cultural solidarity and global
interconnectedness with inclusivity at its center.
I’m acting as a Literary partner for the Life in Quarantine Project, responsible for curating
the works from the literary community for the “Words in Quarantine” section of the Liq
Website. You can learn more about the project here. - First Chapbook “A Potpourri of Emotions”, Local gems Press, NY
https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/chapbook-published-by-the-local-
gem-press-long-island-new-york/ - WolfPack Contributor Bio: Megha Sood
Fevers of the Mind 
Outstanding poetry. Thank you.
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Reblogged this on johncoyote and commented:
Amazing poetry shared. Please read and enjoy.
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet and commented:
Come and Enjoy this!!!
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