Leftover Poem by Biajy Mohanty

I have a secret.

I have kept a bejeweled box in
Someone's memory palace...
neatly tucked away in a neglected corner.
And have forbidden her to look in.

For what lurks
beyond the pearls, diamonds and sapphires
is the crystallized essence of her being. Distilled and refined
to the radiance of a thousand suns..

If you look in, you will
Mortgage your soul, I warned.

Yet in a dark brooding night, when the sky
Weeps tar and the stars hide
Behind emptiness,
When the call of the forbidden remains
the only call ……
When one rummages through the leftovers
She opened it.

And promptly, I arrived
to collect my mortgage.