Kinder Than Me

In this year of deep breaths, / the wheels of my mind / stumble to move clockwise or anti. / I thought I’d spare you the trouble / of being beside me on a day like that,

YASHIKA DOSHI

Ballrooms

We wanted to slice            ourselves in equal halves / for ghosts that possessed our pasts, / who never apologized —

DEBMALYA BANDYOPADHYAY

(Back and forth)

I dance while you sleep, dad /  The souls of my feet / graze your back like irons, / with an ampish fire.

ZAHRA HAMDULAY

Speckles

An ice cream / p l o p s / onto scorching concrete 

SARA MASUD

How to eat an orange

Always experiencing in halves, / The way people in platonic relationships / Share an orange

MBIRA

Oral Cavity

I was in love and we misunderstood one another. / Peeling each other back like dragonfruit – / never ready to reach the middle,

ANNUSHEH RAHIM

Symmetrical

i fold my world into half / with you in the middle / when it unfolds, everything around you is symmetrical

UNZEELA MANZOOR

Outside Dublin

Baby blue swatches, one over each knee bouncing / their sawtooth edges and pinking at the ears. / You are the only man I know whose hands look full / when empty

HOLLY LOVEDAY

Anthropocene

It was the year of fog / the jagged cogwheels of the / world sputtered and / spat out / curses

ESHNA SHARMA 

The Naked Rot

It came clawing at my door one morning / clicking and rattling its yellow tongue / sprung up from the warm belly of August,

SHIR ARIYA

Homemakers

I write the first half of this poem / while walking to the dairy – / we are out of milk. 

SOUMYA HEGDE