Almost rain

1. The air is thick where we stand. 

2. The sky is heavy, like it were on the brink of tears.

3. I suck the air in and it tastes like water.

4. The rain has stopped. It’s time we left.

5. I pick my coat. 

6. This used to be our blanket some days, I say.

7. I know, you smile.

8. I look at you a long time. And longing stirs daggers inside me.

9. All I want to do is look up at the sky and weep.

10. It’s time to go.

It has let up

1. I still scrunch up my nose in memory of the boy who used to say he wanted to drink coffee out of my navel. 

2. Thamel hasn’t changed much since. The streets are always busy with strangers, who sometimes jostle past each other, as they walk in and out of stores and eateries that are multiplying in numbers by the day.

3. I want to go to that particular coffee shop located at the cul-de-sac today, where we spent all our time talking quietly, as though such a thing were only possible between you and me.

4. There are tiny pretty things, arranged in neat rows in that coffee shop that brighten your day. Just like that.

5. I’m walking fast because it seems like the rain will catch my back before I get to the coffee place.

6. I absentmindedly walk at the edge of the street where the road meets the footpath— a bad habit picked up from a forgotten lover.

7. There’s got to be some sesame cookies and brownies to go with coffee. 

8. They always have fresh bakes. Kathmandu is becoming better at its baking skills. 

9. My flip-flops slap tiny grains of dust against my calves as I speed up my steps.

10. At the cul-de-sac. WE ARE CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. SORRY FOR YOUR INCONVENIENCE.