Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
by Shome Dasgupta
In line at the grocery store, this stranger—he told me, with feathers in his hair, he told me he could fly, but he hurt his legs when he hit a mountain covered in clouds, and his wings crumpled. He was waiting until it all healed, and he said he could travel with the fastest of birds. He will be up again in no time, he assured me, and he will never return to land, he continued, shaking my hand while holding a package of glitter—he limped away with a gleaming smile. I never saw him again, but I’m thinking about him now because I’m looking at the clouds, and maybe—perhaps, I’m seeing the most enormous wings flying just under the sun. Could it be the stranger from the store? I don’t think I’ll never know, but there’s glitter on my skin, and there’s a certain shine in the sky.
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Shome Dasgupta is the author of The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), and Histories Of Memories (Belle Point). He can be found at @laughingyeti.
