From ULR
Issue 7 – Environment
My heart is an oak tree
A century-old heart, a wine barrel, observes mud-faced blooms and softening kitchen vegetables.
June 15, 2022
It’s big and branching,
it must be a hundred
years old. Or my heart
is a wine barrel.
I’ve had much to drink.
There are flowers growing,
facing the mud and soil.
Blooming is a small, sad thing.
Meanwhile, the birdsong
is more melodious.
Then bad things happen
alongside good things
like crying and breaking
into laughter. Funny things
happen too like I ate lemon seeds
after reading a poem, or I saw
a squirrel nibble on an acorn
and imitated it. I wonder
about vegetables, how they
soften when they’re spoilt
and that we cook them on low
flame to soften them.
These matters of the heart
must be left to take their course,
that is if my heart is an oak tree
or I’ve just had much to drink.
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONI’m the slowest smoker that I know of and 1 other poem
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Aekta Khubchandani
Aekta Khubchandani is matriculating her dual MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry & Nonfiction) from The New School in NY. She is the founder of Poetry Plant Project, where she conducts month-long workshops. She is the winner of most recently, Epiphany?s Breakout Prize 2022 in Poetry among others. Her film, ?New Normal? won the Best Microfilm award at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Her work is nominated for Best American Short Fiction, Best Microfiction, Best of Net (Poetry), and others. She?s working on two hybrid books.