top of page
author - translator - poet - academic
the essay of our lives​
Anitha Devi Pillai
once i thought we had
a colon
followed by happy moments.
our story in
three happy memories
categorized neat paragraphs
one troubled instance
included for variation.
then i thought we had
a string of commas
capturing slices of life
our story in
several slices or phases
proportioned clear sections
one concise summary
composed for cohesion.
yesterday i wished we had
a semi-colon
connecting gendered voices
our story in
two gendered faces
presented as perspectives
a writer’s voiceover
uniting the soliloquies.
but i found the full-stop
buried between us.
you are another sentence.
​
First published in Cathexis Northwest Press, 2019 https://www.cathexisnorthwestpress.com/post/the-essay-of-our-lives
bottom of page