IceAndBlood

  Cockroaches peeping over the water-pipes. Cobwebs at the ceiling corners. Red stains of tobacco spits all over the walls. I continue to gaze at the walls below the staircase as her head slowly disappears beneath the flight of stairs. The cobwebs have grown, the red stains have been replenished over the year, the cockroaches in our bathroom have given birth to tiny babies who scamper all over when the rooms get dark. They say cockroaches can survive anything, even an apocalypse. I wonder, are we cockroaches? Over the year, the world has turned upside down. Economy has crumbled. Peasants, who had been rotting in the hell of their lives, have risen in revolt. The relentless online classes have cost my 7-year old brother a pair of big heavy spectacles. Market is on fire. Maybe my eyes are burning too but I can’t feel it. Yes, for us, the cockroaches, who struggle through make it through a day, who fight endlessly to get up in the morning, to carry ourselves to the basin and force our