No matter how much you beat it,
the heart is a dog. It will lick any man
who looks on with adoration.
I know because it’s inevitable.
I too have beaten myself at the threshold
of desire and have tried dragging
this body back. But look,
here I am, naked knees grazing the floor
of yet another room. He says,
You look like my childhood friend,
by which he means I could be loved
if I were someone else.
Oh, trust me, I know, like a new dog
in the family
after the first one has died.
Ashish Kumar Singh (he/him) is a queer Indian poet with a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Lucknow. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Wales, Frontier Poetry, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Fourteen Poems, The Texas Review, Atlanta Review, Foglifter Press, Diode Journal, and elsewhere. Currently, he lives in his hometown of Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, where he teaches English to high schoolers.
Header photograph and artwork by Jordan Keller-Wilson
Discover more from Vast
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Vast 