Red
Red is loud.
I hear it when I see it, in its rumbling cacophony as it
Stands out in a crowd,
Rolling off shoulders of confident signages,
Dripping from brimming canisters of words outspoken
I feel it when I see it.
Viscous as it clings adamantly to those
Who fearlessly painted themselves to show up for those
Who couldn’t.
I smell it when I see it.
Imagining a metallic tang, charred sugar
Around the edges.
Red is history written in the color peeling off people
Who stood like a benevolent barricade before us.
Home-coming
You didn’t come crashing in.
Nothing cinematic. No curtain call or all
That hypothetical pomp.
You didn’t come rolling down
With rainclouds and presage. Or shutters
And film, eulogy, or songs.
No. The way you came was more like
How words bleed themselves into letters
Of ink and love. Blurred.
Between my knowing and unknowing,
Everything was silent. Except for your breath
Knocking against the wind-chimes, told me
Of your homecoming.
Senryu: Shelter
Indecisive. I
seek quicksand castles that hold
me but still afloat.
Senryu: Cheese-trap
A clockwork mouse steps
into the cheese trap. Man in
cage of his own making.
Senryu: The biased healer
When wars end, the night
balm soothes but only gilded
Men of Gilead.
Jigeesha is a Microbiology student in Canada, working on mushroom genetics. She is active in the slam poetry and improv/playback theatre scene and seeks escape from the academic world and lab experiments through written and oral poetry performed to self-composed music. Jigeesha is also the co-founder of science magazines/blogs like InquiScitive and loves to integrate scientific jargon in her literary writings.
The Expressionist Literary Magazine 