It's day 7760.
The window is open and
The summer breeze floats in, alongside the smell of garam masala and the sound of drillers.
(I fist my fingers around the clouds and fashion them into a string that I then use to weave a bracelet for my lover).
I'm running low on potato chips.
The laptop is on and
The fat textbooks with their monochrome stories glare at me, unflinchingly.
(I put on my cloak, carefully hiding my sword, and step into the ballroom; a stranger with kohl in their eyes asks me for a dance).
The loudspeaker is on and
Troye Sivan, Lorde, Mumford and Sons all merge into monosyllables in the air.
(I run through a forest, my eyes on the pole star, the wind on my face and I reach the cliff and I jump; and I fly).
I look at the newspaper messily thrown atop my bed
And marvel at how a single dry, black letter is bigger than my mortal body of cells and haemoglobin.
Briefly, I look out the open window and wonder if I should (if I can, if I will) jump.
I don't.
Because it's day 7760 of this quarantine
And the pollution in the air here has hardened my spine.
Oh, what-was-your-name-again, you wouldn't believe the stories of this world!
They have adjectives for you and the rest of my kin – fictional, unreal, monstrous, magical, fictional.
They also have words for me - delusional, day dreamer, childish, foolish, crazy.
(A greedy monarchy, a war and an entire civilisation in ruins.
It's midnight; I'm running, my comrades are running beside me.
We reach a cliff and we jump.
My wings don't open and I find myself crash landing in 1999 - whatever that is.
My body is weak, my mind is fickle, my heart quivers at the slightest inconvenience.
I glance out of the window every night, and
Watch the sky fall ever day).
Ma calls me for dinner,
I close my books, eat food and go to sleep.
(The window is open, the pole star is visible).
Hey, Murtagh, have you sent the raven yet?
I'm waiting for it to bring the spell (the cure, the portion, the map to the gateway) carefully tied to its feet.
(One day, my fingertips will sparkle with magic again).