The red flags you saw from the beginning

Make perfect sense to you now

Now that you have moved on.

I wish the red flags were larger

You saw them better, earlier

Because now I lie on the ground

Afraid to get up because I’ll have to walk,

on the shards of my heart.

I thought I was the king of pain

I’ve endured broken limbs,

wounds buried to the heart

But this heartache cuts to the bone

I’m left empty and alone

Memories bring more pain, tears are in vain

I’m the millionth man wanting to turn back time,

To make it right

But like them I too shall lose the fight

I know now that there is nothing harder,

Than the heart that doesn’t love a man.

I lie where you left me, broken and cold

Licking my wounds, hoping to hold

To the last gasp of a broken heart

That inevitably escapes.

– ‘The Red Flags’, Rakesh Shukla