Tashie Bhuiyan

“If I'm lightning, then what are you?”
Already I can imagine Ace teasing me but instead he smiles and says, “I'm thunder. I'll follow you wherever you go.”
― Tashie Bhuiyan, Counting Down with You

“Promises are meant to be broken, that’s what people always say, but what if I want to keep mine? To this day, I’d sooner break my bones
than go back on any of the words I said
so dearly to you. We’re so young, God, we’re so young. Only sixteen with a pocketful of big dreams. The world is in our hands, that’s what people always say, but what if I’m afraid to carry it? What if I don’t want to be Atlas? You, my dear, are unshakeable. You hold your cards close to your chest. Courage finds a home in the space between your ribs. I’m too young to understand, that’s what people always say, but I am old enough to see. There’s a forest fire in your eyes that sets me alight. A bravery in your heart that beats in tune to mine. My darling, you’re something out of a story. Poetry doesn’t begin to do your soul justice. Change is inevitable, that’s what people always say, but what if that change is good? There’s a lightness to my steps there wasn’t before. There’s a brightness in my heart there wasn’t before. If you held me up to a candle, my silhouette would be covered in your name. Before you, I used to care what people always say
your lovely heart led me astray in unexpected ways. Sometimes I think I’m going to burst into flames. From the spark you struck inside my chest. I wonder, how do you keep from setting yourself afire? But then comes the startling yet undeniable understanding.
You are fireproof, lionheart and now I am, too.”
― Tashie Bhuiyan, Counting Down with You