What is Love?
smells of linden-trees in bloom and girls in flower
the colour of the sky when you wear tinted sunglasses
taste of sweet-n-sour sauce at two in the morning
feels like repeated blows to your chest, strong-armed into breathless
sounds like the background buzz taking over the ear of the matter
What is Anger?
Sets in when love meets the acrid smell of hotel-room encounters
you bring back the scorched branding of cattle irons on my skin
the colour of migraine-inducing flashes of scarlet and indigo
sounds like hostile parrots trapped in a cage that’s far too small
feels like dim flickers of lightning about to flash from every pore
tastes of gravel mixed with ashes
What is Defeat?
semolina-pudding grey of school lunches
tastes like sand grains in your picnic
smells like clothes you’ve rolled into bed with for a day, a night, a day, a night
feels like pushing kettle-bells through mud
even the lampposts have been trained to catcall and taunt you
I’ll be away this evening, so am linking a bit early to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub, where we are celebrating Diwali and you can enjoy many other poets’ offerings.
findingtimetowrite 
The last line is killer. Knocked me right off my chair.
Thank you – my mission is done for today!
Such powerful sensory images, Marina Sofia! And spot on, too! This one really packs a punch.
Wonderful! I do find your poetry really powerful – thank you for sharing it with us.
I love the wonderful examples, using the senses and colors Marina ~ The lines of Defeat resonated strongly with me, specially migraine flashes and that line of the lamppost ~
Love this one 😀 the examples which you have given work so well for each emotion.
Cheers!
cleverly done… emotions and colors have much to say
Love, anger, defeat — all tied together and laid out with its tastes, and smells, and feelings with very effective metaphors. An interesting technique really, a way to dissect emotions.
The 3 elements very well expressed in the various episodes. Brilliant as you could compartmentalize the experiences based on your practical observations.
Hank
So many excellent images, together forming a narrative that’s far from pleasant.. To me it’s storytelling in metaphors.
Anger described incredibly well!
Wow! This is a really profound reflection and you’ve captured so many realities in this brilliant poem… something to be read over and over again.
I think it was clever and interesting to think beyond the cliches and give them a new meaning, a new outlook…very clever piece of writing.
I do like how you separated the emotions and then dissected them with such insightful and vivid descriptions. Excellent piece of writing here – hostile parrots in a too small cage – wow.
Such an excellent sensory & emotional trio of poetics, rife with truths, brutally banal & beautiful; so well done, you need to write another about despair, rebirth, & second love. I really enjoyed the depth & starkness of the piece. I like the line /tastes of gravel mixed with ashes/.
“…hostile parrots trapped in a cage…”
“even the lampposts…”
Your metaphors tell a harsh story, the hope, the reality, aftermath. So deep.
Absolutely lovely expressions…a cascade of metaphors.
Human condition.. so varied
and freed and trapped
and tried and
scorched
and burned
until emotions
and senses
come under
control and
all peace
of river
and winds
breeze.. Credit
human written
language.. collective
intelligence and all of
culture for drifting away
from inner control.. without
all the distractions that rarely
change.. Nature changes and
makes it harder to get stuck
in associations of
past..
but sure..
manual drive
is possible too..
where Diwali
lives inside
with
us shifting gears
of light dark as all of we..:)
Light and dark alternating faster than ever – or dark engulfing light, sadly, this past week. On Wednesday my niece left my house to go to Paris and celebrated Diwali with some Indian friends there in the centre, not too far from where the attacks took place on Friday. Luckily, on Friday, she stayed in.
Glad she is okay.. My friend..:)