Winters are always a novelty in this city (even after 23.2 years). A novelty Like the afternoon sun between 4 & 5 pm, casting a light which makes all faces look beautiful. perfect. i sit here hugging my knees. listening. my body sways ever so slightly to the music. colours change as shadows rise and fall and i strain to catch if only a fragment of whispered secrets. the words, i barely even understand them. and despite the peculiarity of their patterns, the sounds are as known to me as my own beginnings. they are home. inscribed somehow within me. and were you to stretch my skin and turn it inside out you'd see just how deep they run. the markings. engraved from the inside.