What Would You Do?

If I hold you today,

Your hand in the bright streets of this city,

Would you hold me back tighter?

Or would I watch your eyes shifting their gaze, protecting your shadow from a familiar face?

If I lean onto you, and place my head on your shoulder,

Would you pull me in, tighter and closer?

Or would you sluggishly look at me, tracing my lips with your fingers, and then whisper into my ears “goodnight”?

If I ask you for a dream,

Would you give me a dream?

Or would you give me a nightmare cloaked in the most shimmering piece?

If I ask you for the truth,

Would you give me the truth?

Or would you slap a pile of lies

On my barren corpse?

– Fanoos

---

Fanoos is the pen name of Jhanvi Sabharwal. It is a greek word originating from phanós, which means ‘light’ or ‘lantern’. Fanoos, in her words, reflects how writing poetry during the darkest times brings the light in her life. The light in the darkness.