𝙾 𝙲 𝙲 𝚄 𝙻 𝚄 𝙼

by O.P. Jha

on my left side a sweet heart is lying
on my back, perhaps at all the points
of my backbone there’re coils carrying
many permutations and combinations
of relations
with my past, present and future,
in a night I sip many splashes
with a different spell
with a different spark
and my linen is metamorphosed
into a playground
of scattered streaks of centuries
of chunks – some rugged, some smooth
of lights sparkling in talking eyes
of melancholic notes
from birds longing for love
whispers of uncounted lips

on the linen, in my sleep, I dreamt
the sky above my head was full of stars
flickering in the night
came closer, I expected they would collide
but they submerged into a point
before a new big bang
I found all in me
I’m a bedspread, a microcosm
a bubble, a ripple
a Lilliput measuring all the worlds
carrying many leviathans in a single coil
and I treaded through many bedspreads

the Lilliput has travelled a lot
but he couldn’t read all the creases
on his own linen

he whispers – enough
enough, enough, enough

I got up, forgot many rhymes
of my jittery sleep
and found my sweetheart crying
it’s not enough
give me more
more, more, more

birds have risen for a new day
twittering new symphonies of longings
on the bosom of love bubbling over
countless craters through follicles

it wasn’t a mere game between two players,
many webs of waves were rising and falling
in the polygon of raw love avoiding the ripening
of love into a frigid relation and crossing
the horizon without any mile-stone
but with many lampposts burning bright
in the hearts of sweet-hearts.

an odyssey of Eros flew in a night
& polished the whole polygon.  

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O.P. Jha’s works appeared in more than one hundred journals including Rigorous, Mantis, Punt Volat, Discretionary Love, In Parentheses, Shot Glass, Lothlorien Poetry, Kelp, The Cry Lounge, The Odessa Collective, Backchannels, Homer’s Odyssey, The Indian Literature, The Broken Teacup, Poetry Pacific, Five Fleas-Itchy Poetry, By the Beach, miniMag, Iceblink, Infinite Scroll, The Rome Review, The Tiger Leaping Review, The Accendo, Aloka, Ghudsavar, Panorama, Gabby and Min’s Review, Hoot, Vocivia, The Marbled Sigh, Balestra, Forevermore, and others. His poems appeared in anthologies “We were Seeds” and “We are Resilient”. He holds Ph.D. in Translation Studies. X: @OPJha17