Cordate
Cordate
Lana's POV
My eyes flutter open as soon as the first star, my own northern light, illuminates my sky.
I run instinctively to his room; the 1024th time might just get lucky for me.
"What time is it where you are?" (6:00AM)
"Time for me to sleep. And for you to leave. Does it matter?" (6:00PM)
"I'm tired of exchanging messages and voice notes. Will you try, just one more time?" (6:00AM)
"I am. I am trying. But I'm tired. So, so tired. I think..." (6:00PM)
"Lana?" (6:00AM)
"..." (6:00PM)
Lana's POV
Noah and I, we'd started off as internet pals. Different time-zones, parallel palm lines.
"I miss you more than anything" (6:00AM)
Parallel palm lines.
The time gap in getting replies had never affected us too much- we did live a world apart from each other, right? Right.
"Back at home yet feels so far" (6:00PM)
Shifting of tectonic plates. That's how I remember the day Noah, my beautiful Noah, told me he was coming to me. He'd found work here, he'd typed. In capital letters.
"Waiting for the phone to ring" (6:00AM)
The day he entered my 2BHK apartment, my life, my life took a 180° turn.
Literally.
"It's getting lonely livin' upside down" (6:00PM)
"Comatose" was the first word I'd seen on my fridge when I woke up to get ready for my night job. "Comatose" is how he'd described me in my sleeping state, while he'd come and made himself comfortable in my spare room.
"Comatose" is how he'd always know me.
And I, him.
"I don't even wanna be in this town" (6:00AM)
Noah's POV
This couldn't be happening with me. Not again. NO. Just five minutes until I have to sleep. Why isn't she here yet? Why can't she be here yet? Why...
"You say good morning, when it's midnight" (6:00AM)
Lana. Lana. Lana.
The bi-syllabic, four lettered name (like mine) swam in my mind and flowed from my lips like an incomplete haiku from a poet's fingers. I simply HAD to touch her, feel the weight of her head (the earth) on my shoulders, watch her speak (like a child caught in Neverland, forever)
Lana.
I had to go to her.
"Going out of my head alone in this bed" (6:00PM)
"Beautiful" was the first word which had popped in my head when I saw her sleeping peacefully in her bed. Stunning. Gorgeous. Breathtaking...comatose.
She looked like all the colours of the goddamn rainbow. She was...she just was.
Comatose.
"When I wake up, it's sunset" (6:00AM)
Does she know she slept like a cat? Legs curled up under her (lithe) body, arms tucked under her chin.
God, I wish I could talk her. Just once. At the same time.
"It's driving me mad, I miss you so bad" (6:00PM)
Lana's POV
Nowadays, all our voice notes are left in song lyrics. We've run out of things to say to each other.
"Why are you nocturnal?"
"Why are you an early bird?"
"Is your job safe? Are you safe?"
"How do you go to work so early in the morning?"
"I love you. Even though we've never spoken with each other"
"I...I love you too."
"I've been keeping busy all the time" (6:00AM)
My every 11:11PM wish features him.
Does he wish for me, too? I don't know. I want to, though.
I wish I could.
"Trying to keep you off my mind" (6:00PM)
I always leave coffee beans for him in the jug. He always remembers to pick jasmines for my room, on his way home from work. Home. Our home.
Or is it?
"Trying to figure out the time zone's making me crazy" (6:00AM)
Noah's POV
How did she know my favorite song even before I'd found out?
"Our kisses are the ocean breeze// everything's alright when you're with me"
I wonder...I wonder how her lips would feel like, against mine.
I wonder if it'll be like a fairy tale.
I wonder if she'd be my Sleeping Beauty.
I wonder if I can ever wake her up.
Goddamnit, I wonder.
"My heart's so jet lagged" (6:00PM)
Sunlight. That's what she is. Sunlight streaming from clouds on a stormy day. I think about her all the time. Does she think about me? I...I hope she does. I wish she does.
She...does?
"My heart is so jet lagged" (6:00AM)
Even though I've never physically seen her walking, I'm sure she walks with a skip in her step. I mean, I know she likes to believe she's brooding and serious, but how do I tell her that it was the sound of her happiness which made home in my heart?
Home.
She's my home.
"Heart, heart" (6:00PM)
Lana's POV
My love is a solitary sleeper
His love loves to cuddle
My love wears gloves during winter
His love holds hands
My love likes cats
His love prefers dogs
My love writes angsty poetry
His love pens love letters
My love solves newspaper crosswords
His love reads the comic section
My love is up
His, is white
My love, my love destructs,
His love, it heals.
It healed me.
"Heart's so jet lagged" (6:00AM)
Noah's POV
Her skin, it
speaks to me in ways
words rarely can, it
draws me in and
then makes me wait, it
quivers under my
longing gaze, it
makes me unlearn
every face I've ever traced, it
feels like everything I've ever known
and nothing I've ever owned, it
spells l-o-v-e across my heart
and nestles under my flesh and bones, it
becomes my home away from
home.
her skin, it
makes me come undone,
down to my very soul.
She is every poem I ever write. She is art.
Lana's POV
Parallel palm lines.
It's been three years since we started "living" together. I'm yet to be able to make him respond to me, my touch.
Maybe we'll meet in infinity, one day.
Maybe we'll talk too.
Maybe.
Till then...I can stay content, just having him near me.
Noah's POV
She breathes in the same space I do. She eats from the same bowls, drinks from the same glasses. She comes in my dreams every night. She's there, if not fully, then just. Just. She's here. Near me.
And maybe it's enough for now.
We do, after all, have parallel palm lines.
"My heart is so jet lagged"
-end-