Poems Inspired by Rupi Kaur

Oceans internally collide
As storms throw froth
Spray roars with rage
The waves crash into you
Then run away from you
Constant tidal movement
Led in part by the moon
This is how I experience you

I try to love you
Through your chaos
Through your typhoons
Of manic moods and mania
I want to love you
Like my fathers instructions
But your undertow
Is dragging me under
A passive aggressive
Drowning

I welcome your melancholia
The calm before your storms
Your calm sees ...

( after Rupi Kaur )

 
you have never known a creature as myself
i grew from the soil
all else was born from my secrets
overflowing from my belly as wilderness
and from my long dark hair as rain
but also like a tiger
much preparation went into  
this honeyed defiance
to take it seriously
yet my skin is rosewood and i have  
cultured the sandalwood from myself
but that does not mean  
i will be tamed
 

( after Rupi Kaur )


in my life as I grew less young
the joy in the anticipation
of breaking out on my own
was always good, as life was

to run like the wind as the wind
and be welcomed by Gran’ma
her gentle soul knew my restless spirit
and we often shared words

how much the same we’d grown
as closer I’d become and knew
I’d never have what she’d had
and she was winsome in her loss

how beautiful she was that way
the tears fell bitter on our
tongues

Nobody thought it would be this hard
Losing a friend or a lover, but then
You are thinking of them when a card
From them shows up once again.
The slow, trickling tears come back,
Not like a train that suddenly hits you
Or the onslaught of rain as the black
Sky swallows you. It slowly builds to
The point where you get subtle aches.
There are no words to describe it, not
Even on the radio. They are heartbreaks
You have no time to prepare for. A knot
And other symptoms appear, sometimes
Months later when you are clearing out ...