By: Ananya Vats

My heart

Today me heart feels the size of a garlic pod
saturated in its scarlet essence
snuggled safely in soft layers
resting from stretching
TOO MUCH
Too soon
T o o l a r g e
Today my heart sleeps
with twiddling thumbs
content in raspberry dreams
of rollercoaster days,
anarchic ways
Neither stays.

Yesterday it shook with laughter
and submerged in tears
A leaky carmine tumbler spilling over
Tomorrow it will soar above my head
And shatter in my gut at its Nadir
In the same minute
As it clocks seventy two.

But
Today my heart beats
Lub-dub, lub-dub,lub-dub
The crimson contours echoing
Sweet silence.

###

Dead Sea

You,
Salt to my sea
oblivious in your presence
unless
I am tasted,
making me bitter,
unpalatable
yet fecund.
Humans come
to separate us
shatter peace, evaporate us
You glisten behind
in your white glory,
watch me rise
above the land slowly
I sleep in cotton clouds
dream of my homecoming
to kiss you again,
and live in the Dead Sea.
Dissolving in the deepest craters,
we will dance in whirlpools
we will make water beds for those humans
lying together in our infinity.

###

Two lost fish swimming in a soul bowl

Holding close the Scotch misted souvenir
of a wild Vagator soiree.
A sunless July weekday,
wind grooved in abandon
on a carpet of algae.
Emerald coast waltzed with
flirtatious waves
Drunk on rain pouring
with punctuated pauses
like a forgotten song.
Rocks played rain pong
with puddles on a sandless sea .
Coconut trunks whispered
leaning away from me.
A fish swam in a puddle
The bright eyes pasted
on streamlined silver scales
Does it know it is trapped?
My olive floral dress fluttered
hair danced unbound,
imitating the heart inside
set momentarily free.
The heart hums with gilded glee
Does it know I am trapped?

###

Ananya Vats is a poet, artist, and product manager with expertise in artificial intelligence. She lives in Hyderabad, India. She is interested in female voices in the contemporary world ,exploring love and the subtleties of life through words and colors. Her work has been published in “Unread 2.0” anthology by PFA and All Ears magazine.