Modern Love Poems: Your Smile Could Alter my Breathing by Shrutee Choudhary

[Note from Frolic: We’re so excited to welcome poet Shrutee Choudhary back to the site. She’s sharing more of her breathtaking poetry with us!]

One

Your smile could alter my breathing
instill life in an otherwise lifeless body
i didn’t feel like a black hole that a star becomes when it dies.

i felt happy. like all that rainfall had been worth it for this one sighting of
a rainbow.
funny thing, my friend told me the other day this fact about rainbows.
each one of us has a different antisolar point, so nobody really sees the same rainbow.
and I thought about how
nobody would see you the way I do. especially
not you. I wish I could lend you
my eyes only so you could admire yourself for all that you were. are.

we were so effortless in the making, like a cool breeze blowing into your room at nighttime, humbling you with relief.
I’ve been reading a lot lately. stories carry me away from reality. from you. and the state of my heart. we were quite the story too, you know, before we got derailed. we used to be
an epic romance
now we remain a cautionary tale.

Two

I had a dream
a dream with you
and when your fingers
touched me
I shivered
in my wake.

how long could I’ve held
onto that sleep
a few more hours, I think
but the morning came anyway
and even though
I tried to hold onto that feeling
that feeling of having you around
the dream I had, trickled down
my body, back and skin
like drops of water
changing shape
blending into more
water
until I was a towel-dried drought
bathed in the stench of reality.