Poetry by A. Valan

Amrita Valan is a writer from India, an insomniac and loves distilling her thoughts with coffee.

Forever

I wish forever
Would stop still
And time curve into
Conch shell
Rolling rich resonance
Upon eternity sands.

Wishing to dwell in you
I forever wish.

Dive deep blue
Ecstasy
Oceanic love
Submerges me.

I wish
I was yours.

Cream upon my Coffee

My demitasse cups
Cradle
aromatic black brews
Concocting,
Time bewitched.

Swirling satiny cascades
Crème de la crème dreams.
Softly stirred.

Silver spoon
Foamed
Thoughts.
How, once
We were.
Young and
Decadent.

My throat
A warm column
Of smoke
Fresh breath
Rasping in old lungs.

Coffee on the Cards

Sipping from a
Conch demitasse
I ponder, stroking
Seashell fringes.
Putrid icy stasis filches
December’s lilac air,
Fog and smog twirled.
Purple deep freeze.
My bruised bluebell veins
Thawing, with eager sips.

Visible pulse through
Paper thin skin,
Clotted thick
Blood memoirs.

Discolored veneer
Upon stained coffee table
Name cards, saved in an
Engraved cigar box.
Roll call of those who came
Calling, from another time.

I shuffle my deck of mental cards
Whose card could conjure
A story? A perjury?
The brew coagulates
My darkness.

My frame
Horrified rigor mortis
Of cadaver remembrances.

Five am Coffee after Insomnia

Chest full of hurt stories
Anecdotes. Adamantine bestowed ribs
Chiseling definitions. An affinity for
Morbidity.

A slow dawdle towards gas oven
Coffee to drown expert prosecution.
Internal plaintiff.
Inquisitor.

My wrist trembles my mug
Lava and earthquake churn tsunamis
Commits my imbalanced
counterpoised sanity,
Towards jeopardy.
Towards perfidy.

A faint sheen. An upper lip
Flecked with milk, I am
Caffeine stoked.
Partially restored.

I glow, before sunrise.
Proceed to the basin
To do dirty dishes
Washing and rinsing away.
The cup first.

At Sunset

Blood gushing upon picket fences
I lean upon
Barbed wire sunsets.
Fencing adroit defensive
Maneuvers to memories’
Super sharp rapier strokes,
Swift dealt cut thrust .
All my fallacies
Held accountable.
By an invisible elusive
Prosecutor. I plead guilty.
Never sentenced.
Held accountable,
Always on bail.
No verdict.
No acquittal.

My mind fires nimble neurons
Plead mistrials, fifth amendments
Fantastic loophole escape clauses.
But the case is indefatigable.
Hydra headed.
Interminable.

My roguish cheekbones
Blush. Grimace. Grin.
Evolution of sin.
My starved sky lusting soul
Colours itself crimson
Scarlet behind bars.
Prohibition roars
Burning bright
Before night.

From the Editor:

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