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Sunday 3 August 2014

Broken Conscience



The air is hot, stale and nonexistent. Seems like every breath you draw in, is a struggle, a mouthful of nothing but emptiness and fragments of polluted oxygen. Overhead the fan whirs in aimless lazy circles even though it is set to maximum speed. It does nothing to help the suffocating atmosphere as it lethargically stirs up the thick warm air. The sun seems to filter right through the thick dusty curtains that stand still and undisturbed, heavy as if with longing and despair. A musky smell fills the room, saturated with sweat, fear and loss.

A limp hand falls off the edge of the rickety bed, every time someone turns in it it creaks as if taking its last breath. The hand hangs there, the fingers opening and closing ever so slowly, clutching through the thin air. The pillow is a chaos of thick brown hair, combed away from the face and neck, matted with sweat that also glistens on the face and leaves dark patches on the clothes that cling to the body. The chest rises and falls, struggling for breath through excruciating pain. The air wheezes in and out in a futile attempt to nourish the body.

She stands in the doorway; eyes weary and body slump, her eyes fixated on the figure in the bed and the constant whisper of a prayer on her dry chapped lips. Her hands hang by her side in a defeated gesture; as if there's nothing more she can do with them, her legs shaking ever so slightly. As the light recedes from the room, the room doesn't cool.

In the early hours of the morning she turns, averting her eyes from the bed, her feet shuffle towards another door, not so far away, which leads her outside. Her tread is slow and painful, as she walks through empty roads. Eventually her feet give away and she drops down on the pavement, on an unfamiliar. Overhead, the clouds rumble as if with anger, making the little light at this hour look rather eerie and unusual. Her eyes scan the empty roads, the stationary cars and the dark houses, suspending her into her worst fears.

The sound and the dampness brings her back, the rain falls slowly at first. The heat rises from the hot road, pushing its way up, escaping in the tiny puffs of dust that rise as drops pelt down harder. It comes down hard, so hard that it burns her. It feels as though it will cause depressions and groves in her paper thin skin. It hurls down at her as if it were the sentiments that she's lived through, as if it’s the abuse and loss she's suffered through life. It breaks her down bit by bit, cracking the shell, bruising her flesh, her existence, her conscience.


-Momina.

7 comments:

  1. As raw as it is vivid. You have the talent of conjuring up emotionally-rich images that really strike a chord with a reader who, more often than not, can relate to them on some uncertain level.

    Beautifully penned. Hope you are alright. :)

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  2. Hmm... As I read your words triggered the flashes of scenes and scenarios of death I ended up imagining in deep depressions!

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  3. Wow, Momina. Just, wow!

    Not once did I not feel the words, in and out. That is how beautiful it felt.

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  4. You are truly the Queen of words ... such a brilliant display of visual imagery ... awesome !!!!

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  5. Incredible writing Momina! You have written it so vividly that I could imagine myself being that person (although I hope not).

    BTW I have followed you on Twitter using my official name. I hope you can identify. Tell me if you did. :) Would love to add you in Facebook as well. Do you have an account there?

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  6. Sigh, you beautiful beautiful writer.

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  7. Been a while since I came here, Momina. Feels great to come back to the familiar, Your words are a constant in a changing existence. And my, have you grown!

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