Usawa Literary Review is headquartered in Mumbai, India.
PIN Code: 400050
Interested in working or collaborating with us?
Contact Us

We are not God

Illness redefines love, yet bodies remember desire's ripples, a fragile boat sailing on ocean heartbeats.

June 15, 2024

“The sex is so good.” I used to gush like a mynah bird. Heard a bulbul sing recently? Intently? Kyun nahin, nahin, kyun nahin, nahin. Sounds don’t translate; words do. Be mindful where you place your words, your love. Making love is not the same as love making. Frangipani cradles the last run of sun in his lit-up groins; knobby tree trunks know light is a migrant. The day the surgeon’s solution glowered like a boon; I ate kadhi-chawal with blackened lemon pickle. My tongue lingered on the cold moon of the steel plate. “Live. You’re young. You have a young wife.” As distant as someone else’s grief, I heard the euphony of the two words—unstable bladder—placed side by side like us and why us and what if. Nerves carry impulses. Locked in my car, I cried once. Even while getting groceries. Our fingers, lips, skin, breath, eyes, pores remember the ripples. We are the shores those ripples seek. Come, let us let them quiver us once again. This is the love we are making – kyun nahin, nahin, kyun nahin,nahin. Ocean-songs of your heartbeat wash me salty. You snuggle deep. I close my eyes.

Love is a paper boat sailing in swollen drains. We don’t need to create Adam and Eve.

📖
PART OF A COLLECTION

But before you ask how to eat a mango, learn how to choose one and 5 other poems

View Full Collection →

Arti Jain

Arti Jain is a poet, an award-winning spoken word artist and an author. She lives in Doha, Qatar. Her work has appeared in The Kali Project, Kindle India Magazine, Gulmohur Quarterly, The Hooghly Review, Muse India, Poems India, Epistemic Literary, BTWN and is forthcoming in Porch LitMag and National Flash Fiction. She has authored two books: And all the Seasons in between (Ukiyoto Publishing, June 2021) and Don’t Climb on The Bullock Cart (Parakeet Books, U.K. 2023). She writes and performs poetry in English and Hindi.

Looking for more Poetry?

Browse the Poetry Archive →
Back to Issue

Support Our Work

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us.

Support Us

We are an unfunded, independent feminist publication. We need your support to continue our work.