Sunday, February 21, 2016

Shloka Shankar- Two Poems


Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer from India. She loves experimenting with Japanese short-forms of poetry, and found/remixed work alike. Her work has recently appeared in Failed Haiku, Otoliths, Random Sample Review, and so on. She is also the founding editor of the literary & arts journal, Sonic Boom.



I occupy the space

between judgments
and gratitude

where each strand
of black hair is weighed
against the golden brown,

a fallen eyelash
transcends into a wish,

and the color of my skin
becomes a statement –

the kind that gives
you sleepless nights,

makes you fall
in love with my complexity
or lack thereof,

and urges you to bite
your tongue in self-defense.



Buying Time

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when we look back, everything is different.” ~ C.S. Lewis

I ask myself the same old
questions day after day,
year after year, till I tire
of listening to the voices
that tell me what not to do.

Perhaps I reached breaking
point a century ago, and I’m
still pushing my luck
against the odds.

[One hand raises an imaginary bar a notch higher]
I placate my whining
when someone convincingly
assures me that everything
eventually turns out the same.   

It does, and it doesn't.
To know the difference takes a while.

[The other hand lowers the imaginary bar
considerably, after wiping away a smirk.]



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