Bio
Amrita Valan is a writer from India. She has had two works published, Arrivederci Fifty Poems (Gloomy Seahorse Press 2021) and In Between Pauses, a collection of 17 short stories, (Imp Spired Press, 2021). In 2021, she won a jury award for her ekphrastic on Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace from Friends wood Library and has been selected to read her poems in 2022.
Trigger Warning
If I were hope
You would be my millstone
Drowning me in fear.
If I were kind
You’d gouge out my eyes
To change my mind.
And if I were blind
You would not mind.
So I love you
Like a pair of socks
I wear you out
Till the thorns tickle and prick
And then
And I cannot abide
Your clenched fabric.
Reeking of misery’s
Lint and lent
The wear and tear
Of emotions spent
At night I peel you off
The feel of fresh air
Curls my toes in glee
You’re no more
Owner of either my soul
Or soles
Lie on the floor
Babe missing me.
Because you were socks
Blind lame wool
Who wouldn’t see
Padding inside you
Noiselessly,
I took even you
By surprise.
If you were shoes
I’d choose to get up
And walk in you.
If you were gloves
I would absorb
Your warmth
But take the iron out
Of your velvet grasp.