Iridescent Sunset
Rising while falling down
By Leo Gopal
1
Dedication
This little book is dedicated to you; and to learning that pain is just the price of being happy once in a while⎼this too shall pass.
And also to me, and to always being better than yesterday.
2
Copyright
Iridescent Sunset: Rising while falling down.
First Edition
UnCopyright © 2020 Leo Gopal No rights reserved.
ISBN:9798474311258
Imprint: Independently published through Amazon KDP This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
https://leogopal.com
3
Introduction
This is a book compilation of my micro poetry and prose. It may seem to many as just words on a page; but writing these words were each one was a bandaid that healed a distressed part of me.
I have only written at the height of emotion;
or at its depths - therefore, within these pages you will read a life unfold - my life;
and maybe hidden in some of this poetry is you too.
I am a hopeful romantic and you will soon learn just how much of one I am. I do not bare my soul, I freely give it to you, the reader and know that as you might want a book where the reader and writer fall in love, I hope to give you just that.
This is a book for your best and worst days of your life or day. Read in any order.
4
Jump
Falling in love is like skydiving without knowing whether I carry weights or a parachute.
Loving her, I didn't care.
You don't fear falling, you fear hitting the ground.
I was never going to land.
5
Six-word stories
Brain: Be patient.
Heart: Until when?
#SixWordStories
6
I love you too
Catches feelings, Throws them back.
Weird flex, but okay.
7
Closer
On this round earth, there is only so much distance I can travel before I inevitably come back to you.
8
Waiting
I reach for my phone as if it were your hand.
9
Life tasting
When I kissed her,
I tasted the rest of my life, And it was beautiful.
10
Why I love Doctor Who
Instead of a weapon, they gave him a screwdriver to fix things.
Instead of superpowers, they gave him two hearts to care more.
Instead of a battleship, they gave him a police box to call for help.
We need more heroes like that.
11
Legacy
Oh darling, you'll change the world.
12
Already gone (extract)
Words, lasting longer than people.
13
Hopeful romantic
"You're a hopeless romantic!"
Hopeful.
I'm hopeful.
14
No beauty without you
If you do not see the beauty within you, If your heart has been filled with doubt:
I'll tell you the world is beautiful with you, Because indeed there is no beauty without.
15
Delusion
I know that I have very little time, But sorrow for you is all that I've got;
For I wake up each day knowing I'm dying, And you wake up thinking you're not.
16
Coal
We used to talk for hours;
Now our chats don't even scroll.
Where did it all just go?
How did we move from diamond to coal?
17
Why do you have tattoos on your wrists?
I'd rather have art and reminders Than scars and regrets.
18
Five simple rules:
I. Always be kind.
2. Love well.
3. Have no expectations.
4. Give more, take less.
5. Find what you love; let it kill you.
#SameRulesApply
19
Just you
Memories of you are my most prized possessions.
I hope it's you I see when my life flashes before my eyes.
20
Junkyard
When you are not fed love from a silver spoon,
You settle for licking it off knives.
21
Pain (excerpt)
If you do fall in love with pain
Be careful⏤she will bind your wrists with worthlessness and make you want to cut its invisible binds.
You can slit your wrists on my shoulder blades because I have only love to give.
I may not be a hooker for pain, But I am a slut for hugs.
22
Remember
The sun will rise again.
23
Untouched
They say it takes seven years for all the cells in our body to be replaced.
There will come a day when you'll have cheeks my hands will not have caressed.
24
Only of you
She enchanted my pen.
It writes only of her.
25
Open-hearted
Don't be foolish and give her your heart:
She's just going to hurt you and break it.
26
Opening hours
You did not break my heart.
Funny how opening can look a lot like breaking.
What a privilege that would be.
27
If I wrote the news:
Airline pilots' careers take off.
#FakeNews
28
Heartquake
One day, you said you loved me and my knees felt like they were built on fault lines, quaking.
29
Only time
Love me: Let me feel alive.
30
Archaeology of love
If they dusted your heart for fingerprints, would they find mine?
31
Who’s ready?
Maybe you are not ready for love.
Maybe love is not ready for you.
32
Lost without you
Loving you may bring heartache, Though the pain is worth the cost.
For living in a world without you, Is one in which I'd surely be lost.
33
If anyone asks
Who was she to me?
I'll tell them that She was my musician
And I wanted to be a song on her favorite playlist,
One that she knew all the words to.
And for the first time, I wanted to be played.
34
Hallucinations
I've never hallucinated a voice that liked me.
35
Burning
Threw myself at love, Was a moth to her flame;
And I repaired my scorched wings Just to love once again.
They all warned me that I was insane, But I never seem to learn.
How do you save somebody convinced that they should burn?
If I spoke words of water, you would drown.
36
True Face
Put on a mask⏤let me see your true face.
37
Silence
The voices were loudest when I was alone.
38
Time, thy teacher
The clock ticks, tocks, and taunts me.
She is showing me that it can move on even when I do not.
39
Prepared
I know you'll do great without me.
I know I've prepared you for every guy you'll date, every guy you'll marry and every guy you'll hate.
40
Let me hear your heartbeat
I reach for your hand and return with just my phone instead.
Your hand is the only one I want to hold.
Every notification is a reminder that you're not next to me.
41
Confession
I am a man in need of confession more than any other, but I regret it would take too much time when the offer was made.
42
The cost
Heartache was the price I paid for loving deeply,
How lucky I am to afford it.
In my darkest days, I had solar-powered happiness,
And she wore sunshine in her smile.
43
Icarus
She was like the sun.
I was like her Icarus.
44
Share my happiness
How do I know I love you?
I miss you even when I'm happy.
45
Take my breath away
You've taken my breath away so often in the past; no doubt you'll take many more:
I pray you take my last.
46
#SixWordStories
She kissed away all my sadness.
47
Genie
I do not need three wishes, just one:
Stay!
48
Progress report
Spent my spare time trying to convince my shadow that I am someone worth following.
Now, I stand back to back with mountains to show them how much I have grown.
49
I am leaving space
Now, when they leave, I'm no longer scared.
Instead, I look at the space they've left behind,
From parts they occupied and parts of me they took,
And I imagine what beauty can now fill that space.
50
Before you were ready
Maybe the worst thing I did to you was love you before you were ready for it.
51
Can he do this?
He may borrow my words and speak them sweetly to you, but he'll never be able to plagiarize the way I love you.
52
Unpromised
Ok, to say goodbye They say they'll stay.
But they leave.
It will hurt.
Don't hate them.
Love is being happy that they are.
Goodbye, goodbye.
53
Say goodbye
Hoping the universe keeps score, I say goodbye twice,
Hoping to say hello once more.
54
Broken
I gave you my love, I gave you my heart.
Would you love me when I'm weak?
Would you love me if I fell apart?
55
Threaten me
When did love stop being a pleasure and start being a threat?
56
Incandescent
She was the universe showing off.
57
Well, we all make mistakes
Someone told me they loved me yesterday.
I told them we all make mistakes.
I don't think that was the correct answer.
58
Drops of thoughts
If I could pour her thoughts into a bottle, I would drink until my friends took away my keys.
59
Dear haters
To my haters:
There is only one thing I do better than you.
I hate myself more than you ever could, And I'll probably apologize for that too.
60
Teaching by example (badly)
Darling, do not feel bad for not loving me as you think I should.
I didn't love myself enough to show you how you could.
61
Incomparable
Oh love,
Quit comparing your behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reel.
You’ve got this.
62
More sweat
She tells me to put in the effort and to let go of my fears because sweat holds more value than tears.
63
Souled
Maybe we confuse soul mates with sole mates.
Maybe
We have many soul mates, each perfect for a part of our soul, for an amount of our time.
Never all our soul, never all at once, but always perfect.
64
Write me something encouraging
You leave.
They move on.
How is that auspicious?
It's in the right order.
65
Belief
I do not need to believe in God when she believes in me.
#SixWordStories
66
Tell them about you
"Until you have done something for
humanity, you should be ashamed to die,"
Horace Mann wrote.
The best I can do for the world is tell them about you.
67
Trip
I fall in love so easily.
All you need to do is exist.
68
No happy endings
There are no happy endings is the saddest part,
So just give me a happy middle and a happy start.
69
Applause
And there you were, in the audience, applauding me with the hands that will never hold me again.
70
Outlived by milk
Perspective changes everything.
Today I stopped checking expiration dates.
71
#SixWordStories
There's always something to live for.
72
#SixWordStories
We make time for what matters.
73
#SixLineStories
More forever please.
Please,
Just this once, Can "forever"
Last just a little Longer?
74
Do I? Could you?
Would you stop my tears with kisses?
Could you bring them to a halt?
Could you teach me that this pain Isn't always my fault?
75
Poem
She was not so easily summarized.
76
If I wrote the news:
Mechanic removes spanner from works.
#FakeNews
77
Hope roped
I reached for a hand and a little hope, but instead was handed a little rope.
78
This is how I love you
I tried to understand how much I love you, Until I saw a bee drown in honey.
Now I understand.
79
Evidence
My heart
Only has your fingerprints.
80
Unpromise me
People don't know what they are promising when they promise them.
They don't mean to break them.
Forgive them.
81
The better view
You stared at the sunset.
I stared at you.
We both were admiring the most beautiful things.
I had the better view.
82
World peace
I loved her so much I forgot what hating myself felt like.
83
Membership
Spending time with you is like having fingerprint access to heaven.
84
#SixWordStories
There's always something to live for.
85
A good place
More answers Than questions.
More keys Than locks.
86
Do you even lift, bro?
Emptiness is the heaviest thing I've carried.
87
Enough time
I would get over you and move on in time.
I just don't have enough time to do it.
88
Self-full
A wise man
Will teach you that there is this moment When you learn that being selfish is not The same as beingself-full.
Fill your own cup first.
89
#SixWordStories
That moment was worth the risk.
90
Pain (excerpt)
Turns out, I thought pain was just mine.
But she's been around, everyone I know has had her sometime soon or ago.
I thought I was unique, but all she ever wanted to do was make me weak.
Now, I am best friends with letting go, I have stopped visiting yesterday and postponed my trip to tomorrow.
My address is today and the time is now.
91
Of course
She wasn't afraid of being burned:
She was the flame.
She will set the world on fire with the light in her heart and I will always feel her warmth.
92
Irresponsible arrows
Fuck, Cupid!
Stop using me as target practice.
93
Be better
I never tried to keep you,
I never stopped you from going.
I knew you deserved better
And now that you're gone, maybe I should've been better.
94
Deliberate
Practice makes permanent not perfect.
95
Like breathing
When did you become SO necessary?
#SixWordStories
96
Wish you did
You did not break my heart, I wish you did.
I broke my own heart in believing you.
97
Already gone (excerpt)
For weeks he was afraid he may leave, then he was afraid that he wouldn't.
There were so many things he could have become.
But he will remain, made up of possibilities, for he was already gone.
Words, lasting longer than people.
98
Sometimes
Sometimes, when they say Always,
They mean it.
Sometimes.
99
Traveler
I’m a tourist, not of places, but of hearts and memories.
You are my favorite destination.
To memories of you I'll always return.
100
Forget me not
It is often said that a person dies twice:
Once when they breathe their last, and Once when they are remembered for the last time.
101
How to love
Let him see how I love you,
He should know how to do it right.
102
Loves twin
You look a lot like love.
#SixWordStories
103
Time
Time flies when you're having fun.
I miss her, and the hands on my clock have arthritis.
104
Escape?
Why couldn't he move on?
He saw her every time the sun set.
105
Shots fired
I was her favorite hit man,
Hell-bent on assassinating every moment She didn't feel beautiful.
106
Absence
I wake up at night with my arms wrapped around your absence.
107
Teacher
If I know anything about love, it's because of you.
108
Bombshell
You see this? Right here? This is an old American bombshell.
You may want to hold it
But be careful not to hurt yourself.
You see her? Over there? She's a young American bombshell.
You may want to hold her
But be careful not to hurt yourself.
109
Now I understand
Today, as I sat outside, all bright and sunny, I saw a bee drown, in honey.
I get it.
110
If I wrote the news:
Piano maker finds misplaced keys.
#FakeNews
111
Essential
Your happiness is essential to me.
#SixWordStories
112
Prison break
I lived with my heart in a cage.
You smiled and suddenly I was free.
113
Many loved
The beauty of a sunrise has never Diminished the beauty of a sunset.
So too with one love over another.
114
Warned
I want to
Tell the world about you.
They should be warned.
115
On loving and being loved
There is a difference between loving and being loved.
To love is to plant a tree knowing you may never enjoy its shade.
But it grew and nothing else mattered.
116
If I wrote the news:
Rapping klepto steals the show.
#FakeNews
117
Wrong number
I let my phone ring to silence.
I am not the one you're looking for.
Although you have the right number, I am not the right one anymore.
118
Blink
You cannot kill a monster unless you're willing to see it in the mirror.
Today I saw my reflection blink.
119
You could hate me more
Who needs enemies when I have myself?
120
Permanent ink
We loved in permanent ink and called our flaws art; even our mistakes were beautiful.
121
Recharged
I looked to her for definitions of words like beauty, kindness, love.
122
Lies we hope for
If love is blind, then out of sight is surely not out of mind.
123
Warrior
Love, do not be a worrier.
You are a warrior.
Rest, but never quit.
124
Loving you
Felt like the only thing I was ever good at.
125
Right answer
She was the right answer.
I never needed to know the question.
126
How to say goodbye
It's so hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye.
There's only one way I'd accept:
Say it like you're coming back.
127
Worth it
Sadness is the price we pay for smiling every once in a while.
128
Couldn't you love
My love for you grew upward like a tree.
Under their branches you found shade.
I hoped your love wouldn't fade.
But in my winter you left me.
In the cold you thought my branches Were there to help your start a fire And instead of saying you loved me You put a chainsaw through my heart.
129
(L)earned
Everything you're going through is
preparing you for what you've asked for.
You'll get what you've earned from what you've learned.
130
Truth or dare
How dare you show me everything that I'll be missing?
131
If I wrote the news:
Promising artist draws attention.
#FakeNews
132
If I wrote the news:
Fruit farmer grows a pear.
#FakeNews
133
#SixWordStories
Would you stay? Would you leave?
134
Three things
These three things can heal anything:
Music, the ocean, the stars.
Her words were music.
Her smile like waves.
Her eyes were stars.
She healed me.
135
Hold my hand
I could conquer the world with one hand, If you held the other.
136
And I'll be there until the last
You came this far,
You've gone through so much.
I can't say you can handle everything, But you will handle everything except the last thing.
137
Notice me
Even stars hope you'll notice them.
#SixWordStories
138
Bad pickup line
I heard you're into bad guys:
I'm bad at everything.
139
Sunset
You and the sun have more in common
Than you think.
Only you and the sun could make leaving look
So beautiful.
140
Being
When you truly love someone, You love a being,
No matter what they're doing.
141
Love in the dark
It was never the way she looked, It was never love at first sight.
It was how she was, her very being.
I fell in love with my eyes closed.
142
If I wrote the news:
Pessimist and optimist finish their drinks.
#FakeNews
143
Erased hazed
If I could, I would erase every bit of me from your mind.
You won't remember ever loving me.
You won't remember why you ever stopped.
144
Masks
7 billion people.
14 billion faces.
145
No before
I love you better than I've ever loved before.
In fact, I doubt if I've ever loved before.
146
#MentalHealth
I traded my mind to save my soul.
147
First
Nice guys.
Last message.
Last goodnight.
Last kiss.
Last love.
Finish last, eh?
148
Breakdown
Sadness isn't a sickness but I think I'm coming down.
149
Pain (excerpt)
I am a hooker for pain.
I striptease insanity
and lap dance to sadness;
Pole dance for an audience of fear and anxiety.
I give an erection to suicidal thoughts because life is hard.
But through the difficulties, I give head to failure
And I promise a happy ending.
150
Plural
Maybe the heart is meant to shatter into pieces so many because we were never meant to love in the singular.
151
Suffocate
He inhabited their lives like air, mostly unnoticed but there in need.
They left him, then wondered why it suddenly became harder to breathe.
152
Cruel teacher
Time is a cruel teacher.
I have been knowingly taunting the reaper to take a free scythe in my direction; and now that I've become a finalist in the race of life, I want more time.
153
Let me love you
I am a writer, let me love you;
I'll make you immortal.
I am an over-thinker, let me love you;
I've already thought of every reason not to.
I am me, let me love you;
I do not know how not to.
I love you.
154
Pickpocket
I find myself pickpocketing my own mind for reasons just to talk to you.
155
Broken
Call it broken, Call it wretched, Call it unfinished, And give it my name.
156
Gasping
You were a breath of fresh air when all I knew was suffocation.
157
As much as you
One day, if I'm lucky,
I'll love myself as much as I love you.
158
Autobiography
Slips, trips, and loves.
159
Be the light
To lose everything and still have a tender heart, is to be the light in an oft too dark world.
160
Reason to leave
The only reason I would ever leave Is so that I may
Once again arrive.
Because it's only ever been with you That I've ever truly felt alive.
161
Come as you are
When she finds you (and she will find you) Love her where she is.
162
Why?
You exist; therefore, I love you.
#SixWordStories
163
Sometimes I say never
I will never give up on you.
164
But never in the dark
We loved like the sun and the moon:
Always missing each other.
165
Would you love me?
When is a door not a door?
When it's ajar (a jar).
When is a monster not a monster?
When you love it.
166
Hold 'em
You held me only because your hands were empty.
167
Healing
When every problem looks like a page, I do my best impression of a pen
And put ink to paper and write about her.
This is how I heal.
168
Waving
My love for you is like waves of the ocean:
Infinite and flowing,
Always returning to kiss the shore, no Matter how
Many Times
It was sent away.
Like the waves,
Love also tastes of tears.
169
Shattered dust
I do not want to leave this world without a broken heart and in one piece.
I'd like to leave so full of love and So very very shattered that
I become like dust:
Insignificant and everywhere.
170
Composer
She's music in a world still learning to speak.
That's why words aren't enough to describe her.
171
Patient pain patient
Very few of the most important things have been learned without pain.
Be patient.
Some time, this pain will be useful to you.
172
Visa
At least love doesn't require visas.
#SixWordStories
173
Doubt relief
If she ever doubted herself, I wanted to be
Her most reliable hitman, hell-bent on Assassinating her uncertainty.
Because certainly, she's heaven-sent.
174
No returns, refunds, or exchanges
Stop.
Giving.
Me.
My.
Heart.
Back.
It's.
Yours.
Always.
175
Hope
I hope you find love.
I hope you find someone you love just as I love you.
But mostly, I hope you never have to know what it's like if they don't love you too.
I hope that for you.
176
Shooting star, missed target
If I were a star,
I'd fall with only the hope that you'd make a wish on me.
Even as a star, falling for you is natural.
177
No wound
I searched my body for a wound.
How can someone hurt so much and not bleed?
178
Make sense, not war
She understood me; and I wanted to spend all night making sweet sense to her.
179
Haunting questions
What if you've already experienced your best day,
your last good day?
What if you haven't?
180
Groot
Groot.
Groot? Groot, Groot.
Groot... Groot!
#SixWordStories
181
The final knife
Pull off the band-aid, it's time to say what you never did: "Goodbye".
182
Fewer
Few pains are greater than the pain of being hurt by the one you shared your pains with.
183
Pictures
Pictures were the only way For me to treasure what I knew.
The memories in them never change When the people in them do.
184
Goosebumps
Skin tells you How to touch it, If you listen.
And though love is blind, I read her goosebumps Like Braille.
185
Friends, listen closely:
Unravel your soul,
Crawl out of your insecurities, Keep holding on to love.
Yesterday is gone,
Only the present remains.
Understand this, you'll be free.
186
Real monsters
I'm not afraid of the monsters that live beneath my bed.
I only fear the ones that live inside my head.
187
Not running away
I am not running away.
I am running towards, Before it all fades away.
188
When a nerd loves you
If I could I'd live with you above the clouds, So nothing could ever rain on our parade (And time passes slower the higher the altitude).
189
My superpower
When you feel lost, Come to me.
Finding you is my only superpower.
190
Linguist
She was the dictionary I used
To look up the definitions for words like:
Beauty, kindness, perfection, love.
191
A good life
Every time you're presented with a perfect moment,
Like a beautiful day, good waves or a great conversation⏤seize it.
A good life is made up of many of these moments.
Get as many of them as you can.
192
Shortest poem
Stay.
193
Lost and found
Losing myself in you felt a lot like being found.
194
Hold it against me
I want you to be the something I did wrong.
I want you to hold it against me.
195
Survive
I don't care if I survive you.
You are the only time I've ever felt alive.
196
Promises
You'll never have to doubt that you are loved.
You have my word.
You have all my words.
197
Future me
In the future, there is a version of me that is smiling, and who is thankful that I never gave up.
198
Victory
Small steps to the sun,
To be the light in an often too dark world:
That is a victory.
199
