inspirational, leisure

Rent Free Poem Week 2: Day 1

Posted by Sandhya on

Hello rockstars, 

I wanted to get a few more blog posts in to welcome Fall. For so many years, September marked the start of school, new beginnings, and the chance to be a “new you.” But ever since I finished school, September mostly just marks the return of heavier morning traffic as parents shuttle their kids to school. Still, Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. 🍁

I watched a reel the other day that claimed when women have a crush, their creativity drops. I was livid. I refused to subscribe to that narrative, and needed to insist, loudly, that my creativity is alive and well.

So, it’s official: it’s time for another “Rent Free Poem” Week!

Some of you might remember the first edition back in February 2024 (posts linked at the bottom). That was right before Tay’s TTPD dropped. And funny enough her newest album, Life of a Showgirl, comes out this Friday. I guess I’m more aligned with Taylor than I thought… though let’s be real, her productivity is goals.

What is Rent Free Poem Week?

So what is rent free poem week? Every day for a week, I pick a poem that’s been living rent-free in my head since I read it, and I write about it. For this, I have to channel all my 10th-grade English reading comprehension skills, but sadly there are no SparkNotes for these poems. So here is me, taking my shallow take on deep poems and hoping I can half-as-eloquently describe how these beautiful pieces of writing made me feel. 

As I was picking poems for this week, I realized many of them are by the same author who kicked off my first Rent Free Poem Week: Jess Janz, the poet behind Coffee Date Physics.

On that note; here’s Week 2; Day 1: 

Right Now, Somewhere by Jess Janz

Somewhere right now someone is peeling an orange for a person they love. They are digging their thumbs and picking at the fly-away strings of pulp and holding the bald orb up softly, like it was the easiest thing in the world to take on the task. This isn’t even the nicest thing they’ve ever done. They will go on to do countless other radically miniscule and kind things.

Right now, somewhere, people are paused at a doorway, maybe leaning their shoulder blades on it or propping it open with their ankle, their elbow, all because there is someone else right behind them who is heading out. Right now someone is crouched down to teach a kid how to their shoes.

Somewhere, right now in our world, people are complimenting a bright shirt, a peachy cheek tint, a funky hair clip. Someone is saying “I got it” as they pay for both coffees. Someone somewhere right at this moment is giving a thumbs up. Maybe a reassuring nod along with it. Right now someone is winking from across the room.

Somewhere right now (maybe right here) someone is looking for a bit of proof that life is in fact good, and your face comes immediately to mind as solid and unshakeable evidence for their inquiry, maybe the image of your face smirking as you hold up a peeled and perfect orange.

I love her poems because they’re so easy to relate to and feel good about.

This isn’t even the nicest thing they’ve ever done. They will go on to do countless other radically miniscule and kind things.

I’ll be honest, I never fully understood the orange-peeling thing. People online made it symbolic of love: Find someone who peels your oranges. But truthfully? I don’t need someone to peel mine. I like peeling the orange. But maybe that just means … I’m someone else’s orange peeler.

A few months ago, Sarah and I were peeling oranges together and managed to get the entire peel off in one piece. We were asked: “Wait, how did you do that??” I looked at the orange and my intact peel, not knowing how to explain it. I’ve just always done it that way. “Will you teach me someday?” “Of course,” I said without hesitation, and immediately thought, Okay, now I need to figure out how to teach this.

For me, the equivalent of peeling an orange is cutting up fruit.

When I was younger, and I’d be studying in my room, my parents would quietly bring up a bowl of cut fruit. No words. Just a bowl. It was the purest, quietest form of love.

Even now, when we buy fruit from Costco, my parents will say, “Why don’t you eat a peach?” And I’ll reply, “Yeah, okay, I’ll cut it!” But if I’m too busy, they’ll beat me to it.

Last week when I went to New York, I was leaving from my parents’ house. I sleepily hugged them bye as they went to work, and I went back to bed. When I got up to leave, I noticed my mom had tucked a plastic box of cut apple slices into my bag so I wouldn’t get hungry on the train.

Even at my apartment, Sarah always makes extra food, brings back bubble tea or coffee when she’s out, or hands me a bowl of my favorite stress snack (blackberries) when I’m particularly stressed about work.

Someone is saying “I got it” as they pay for both coffees

Yesterday, I grabbed coffee with one of my longtime family friends, Radhika.

We’ve known each other for years; back when our families used to hang out almost every weekend. Life got busy, and I stopped going to those hangouts as much. But even as a kid, I remember thinking: Radhika is good vibes.

A few years ago, at her sister’s wedding, Radhika and I were the last ones on the dance floor. Classic. And a few weeks ago at our friend’s wedding, Radhika and I partied on the dance floor once again.

We met up at Shotted in Tysons (10/10 recommend the Spanish latte if you’re a sweet latte girl like me). Then we just sat at the mall for an hour, talking about everything and nothing.

It was one of those hangouts where you can’t stop laughing and you’re finishing each other’s sentences because you know exactly where the story is going because you’ve been in that exact situation before too.

I always say that the goal in life is to do more things that make you forget to check your phone. When I’m with safe and fun people, I slow down to 0.5 and I stop checking my phone and stop worrying about the world. Even though our hangout yesterday morning was cut short because of (my) work — meetings both before and after our coffee date — it was a really fun hour. If my phone wasn’t non-stop blowing up, then I would have completely forgotten to check it.

Someone somewhere right at this moment is giving a thumbs up. Maybe a reassuring nod along with it. Right now someone is winking from across the room.

Two scenarios come to mind.

Scenario A: Maybe I’m in an in-person meeting where I’m waiting to present an update on my workstream, but we’re excruciatingly been on the first topic for 30 minutes. Inevitably, someone says something funny. It may not even be that funny, but then you meet your friend’s gaze, and you have to use all your energy to keep it together and stop yourself from bursting into laughter. And then the second you calm down, you look up at them to see if they’ve calmed down, and they unfortunately had the same plan. So when your eyes lock again, you start laughing all over again? Then maybe you get a ping from them saying “don’t make me laugh on the call, sandhya.” You can’t help it, because you’re barely keeping it together yourself.

Scenario B: You’re at a party with a group of people and you and your friend are in different conversations. But you lock eyes across the room and they give you a supportive smile — maybe proud of you for being social. Or maybe they mouth a “help me,” because they’ve been looking for an excuse to leave that conversation for the last ten minutes.

These moments feel so mundane at the time, but as I’m sitting here typing this up, I can’t help but smile fondly. It’s the mundane moments that we miss the most.

Somewhere right now (maybe right here) someone is looking for a bit of proof that life is in fact good, and your face comes immediately to mind as solid and unshakeable evidence for their inquiry

There’s this new Bollywood song I love called Aavan Jaavan. Though it’s a romantic love song, there’s a line in that lives rent free in my head: “Life feels more beautiful to me when I’m with you.”

The amount of people I think about when I hear that line — my parents, my brother, my friends (old and new).

I’ve always said I’m rich in familial and platonic love. But honestly? If we count all of these moments as love, we’re all rich in love.

The fruit.
The door-holding.
The coffee dates
The cut peaches.
The across-the-room smiles.

They add up.

And I hope that when someone thinks of love, kindness, comfort, safety, and unshakeable evidence that life is good, that I flash through their mind.

Past Rent-Free Poems: 

Until next time!

xo

Sandhya

If you would like to celebrate my 30th year around the sun with me, then please click the follow or subscribe button! Feel free to connect with me through this platform, twitter, my coffee and checkins Instagram, my podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Amazon Music, or email me at coffeeandcheckins@gmail.com! If you have any suggestions for topics or anything you’d like me to write/speak about, please let me know🙂❤

4 Comments Add yours

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