Excerpt of self-portrait as a kind of devouring
"whatever part of Noah's ark or
Attenborough's docu comes for this reclamation,
I'm here for it.
they can enjoy my supple thighs, roasted, curried or grilled
i demand not to be boiled, i refuse to be a salt-and-pepper kind of meal.
promise me you won't let me go unseasoned?"Excerpt of some nights I pray to swine flu gods
"Give me that Fat Bottomed Girls Cosmo
the BM-lie detector.
visit from swine flu gods, combined with typhoid numen
I have Ammaʼs arms and Naniʼs hips, their endurance combined."Excerpt of If they broke it, do we still have to buy it?
"Don't tell me empathy is finite.
I know forgetting is easier to come by than forgiveness
But is that so bad?
Come close, let me tell you its secrets.
This world confessed it's atrophying
Got a bad case of osteoporosis
I guess crumbling is now an adjective?"Excerpt of among me
"my god comes home too late, stays in a glass cubed cell
waits for darkness to declare him productive
my god is a clumsy dancer
gliding sockless on scratched forgiving floors
my god knows my name
and all the ways to breathe it"Excerpt of In your before
"rides came without a cautionary tale,
for there is no one left to share them:
a one way trip to butterfly
i lost your name through time
like a misspelled park of amusement"Excerpt of What is this immigrant instinct to cook my day away?
"in the midst of performance appraisals and the impending red of misfortune,
i put on a Haldi stained pot; handful of mustard seeds popping
copious salting, restrained pepper, for the green chilli is coming
*
The price to integrate is to not rage at golden milk chai tea lattes
assimilate: great, i did it.
Did you also need me to lose myself?"Excerpt of What do dead bees spread?
"coffee burns, tea stinks of cardamom calendar unturned,
the pretense for relevance
my favorite consumptions now turn on me now turn me off
fortune cookie with no message
is this how you felt the year our love died"Photo Credits: Shivani Gupta (me)