"The Long Road of Smoke and Silence"

Royal Club for Literature and Peace 

"The Long Road of Smoke and Silence"

Sanjay Singh

"The Long Road of Smoke and Silence"

The day—

a hollow vessel,

echoing with the clatter of unseen things—

a rusted pail hung beneath a broken sky,

collecting neither light nor sound.

And the night—

a blind well,

where every star has forgotten its name,

and dreams fall in,

never making a sound as they drown.

These eyes, once gardens of rain,

now breathe only smoke—

gray wisps curling from memories

burnt before they bloomed.

Not tears,

only the ashes of yesterdays

no one dared to hold.

Life,

a reluctant guest

in a room with no windows.

No purpose,

just a restless hush—

as if death had become

the only song worth humming

on a street with no turning.

And here,

in this strange city

where faces are masks

and voices pass like ghosts,

I search—

not for hope,

not for light,

but for something familiar—

a scent, a sound,

a name I used to answer to

before I forgot who I was

chasing the end of the road

that never stops running.

Sanjay Singh

documentation: Waffaa Badarneh