Fernaaz

the stars i see with closed eyes

when i close my eyes,

i can’t help but observe the stars

scattered in the black atmosphere– 

an atmosphere i had never taken note of;

behind my eyelids,

guarded by my lashes.

 

a cosmos I can

 escape to

when the silence whispers her secrets,

when the bansuri fills my lungs,

when the tears sting, rolling down my cheeks,

seeping into the cracks of my heart.

 

they call these stars,

this magnificent universe:

 “phosphenes”

in the science textbooks.

but i think of it as my

personal Cosmos– 

 

one i can carry with me

wherever i go,

one that stays with me even when

i close the windows,

one that i can see on

the cloudiest of nights.

 

it is at times like this

that i wonder–

they say the Universe is 

an outside source 

to be researched but

have we ever noticed

 

the universes inside us,

each organ, each cell

 possessing a universe of its own,

like the “phosphene” behind our eyes,

the liquid galaxies in our salivary glands?

 

have we ever realized that

 

the stars we see when we close our eyes

are nothing less than the stars in the Milky Way.

that the liquid galaxies we feel when we swallow,

are nothing less than Andromeda and Centaurus.

that the stardust in the oxygen we inhale, is nothing less

than the dust spread by exploding supernovae.

 

have we ever realized that 

the stars we see when

we close our eyes is just

a fraction of the universe

we hold 

within.