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 