When a Place Forgets You and Not the Other Way Round

Staring at the corridor beyond me

I realise I will soon be a stranger

to this place, this atmosphere.

Others will come where I have been

And go, perhaps, where I am going.

 

I think I will miss this place,

Sometimes; in bits and pieces.

Not more that.

After all, it’s not the first place

I have become a stranger to.

 

But this process of unknowing

Has a pattern too.

With the people, it will be a slow

Slide, a subtle shift that is felt

After it’s done.

 

It’s the place that will make me

An immediate stranger.

No more over-sweetened tea with friends,

Or waiting to get a coffee and hoping the

Machine actually works this time.

 

If I ever visit again, the machine

Might still be there later.

But my friends won’t. My memories

will be tainted with the feeling of

Not belonging here anymore.

 

I have kind of gotten used to this.

But as I wander along, traversing

The corridors between past and future,

I wonder how soon this place will change,

The past version remaining only in my memory.

 

Priyale Chandra, 23, is a freelance journalist and a student of Convergent Journalism at AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia.

Featured image credit: Franck V./Unsplash