#morningtonroad

[samaya11]

Somewhere on an east london rooftop

Somewhere on an east london roof top, or by those tall creaky outdoor house stairs where we lived on mornington road

(that lets just admit was probably laden with poisonous lead or asbestos)

Maybe a trace remains on an old ledge by a Connaughts school for girls or the bathroom door of a place that somehow withstood time and hope

I like to think there is a “Dipa Patel woz here” scrawled in her neat cursive into the stone or in now invisible ink

(probably originally in green or purple ink because why be ordinary when you can be Dipa)

Her imprint

Still survives

Just like her

Presence in my life

These marks do not wash off

She was here

And I am better for it.

— Priya Ramesh Desai, 2021 @samaya11