I woke up

To the sight of

A girl drowning

In a tub of coal

Before being dragged out

To disappear by encounter.

I woke up

To the song

Mere sapno ke rani

Kab aayegi tu …

‘Did I wake or sleep?’

There had been a man in it…

The one that passed orders.

And the one that carried them and her out

Of my jolted dream.

There had been yet another girl in it.

Afloat in the shadows of living silence.

The overwhelming question is,

Which was I?

~Ananya Dutta Gupta

India