Cerebration

The Apartment at Night: Rohith

Rohith is a poet from Anantapur, a small town in South India. He grew up listening to the strange and fantastic stories of Anantapur and its people. He is studying to be a doctor, and writes fiction and prose, also in his mother tongue Telugu and translates poetry from Telugu to English. His English poetry has been published in magazines like The Bombay Literary Magazine, The Punch, Sunflower Collective etc.

"When people cry, you just give them a tissue. But when
an apartment cries, it's a lot of work to mop it up."

- From the movie Chungking Express

1

In the apartment, after you sleep,

it is a winter. The world outside

disappears in a tumult of rain.

A ship has lost its way on the ocean.

2

The apartment you sleep paints

itself in the colour of a monotony,

a parting whisper opens up the chasm

between the two worlds of life.

3

The apartment is cooling down in

stubborn silence. As the night deepens,

the loneliest is the one who is left

at the alter of sleep, listening to a cricket.

4

The apartment at night is a sad creature.

The towel left to dry in balcony is

perpetually mournful. The chairs are empty.

The shirt hung to the wall is sadly wrinkled.

5

There are two nights in this world. The

night for the sleep-ridden and the night

for the sleep-deprived. The two nights are

always conversing, between two worlds.

6

The two worlds exchange letters

as dreams.

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