Two Poems
I talk to mia at the calamity
I KISS THE PORCELAIN & THE WORLD
IS FIBONACCIED INTO SNOW. TODAY IS A
THURSDAY EXCEPT THE WORKWEEK ATE ITSELF
FOR DINNER FIVE TIMES. HERE WE ARE GRIPPING EACH
OTHER IN THIS UNDERGROUND BUNKER WHICH I LIKE TO
TITLE A REQUIEM FOR ACID REFLUXES. HERE WE ARE CLUTCHING
BROWN BOXES AND CUTTING OUR SOFT MOUTHS WITH MENTAL MATH.
THE APOCALYPSE MEANS THAT EVERYTHING FREEZES IN THE BELLY OF THE
SLEEPING BAGS THAT CLUTTER OUR TOMBS. WHERE WE LAY & I EXIST UNDERNEATH
GLASS SQUARES THAT SQUIRM HUNGER INTO MY RIBS LIKE SPLINTERINGS.
& I WISH FOR NOTHING BUT BONES ON BONES ON BONES. & YOU TRACE
THE LINES ON MY STOMACHS IN EARNEST. SEE, AT THE DEADEND
NONE OF IT MATTERS: NOTICE THAT YOU & I ARE FOSSILIZED
INTO TRAILER WALLS & CANNOT MEMORIZE OUTLINES.
NOW, WE ARE ALL FOREVER SKELETAL & LOVESICK.
NOW, WE ARE ALL STARVING BLUE GHOSTS, &
MY HEADSTONE DOES NOT SAY SKINNY.
Roadkill
Let us memorialize / the squirrel and its brains.
The night was all sticky and I was very apologetic and also
ashamed.
Was the headlight the last thing it saw.
Was the engine the gun / the roar / of the afterlife.
Going 50 in a residential lands you / with karmic debt.
The squirrel was left on the driveway to rot I guess
but also it was my driveway, and the neighbors
must have thought
it was me.
Little thing. Bloody, y’know.
My brother used to feed a squirrel in our backyard and
then in a week we were out of peanuts because she
brought all her friends, which were striped, and I think some
were nursing infants.
That, or they were fat off cholesterol and protein / and the foxes
were too preoccupied
with the rabbits
to notice.
So I was thinking while I was thanking
the moon for shadows
that made me blameless
that this squirrel on my driveway this / dead squirrel on my driveway
maybe / I had been kind
to it once.
Ananya Kharat is a writer based in the Chicagoland area. Alongside being recognized nationally by the Scholastic Art and Writing awards, she is published in Meari Magazine, The Lunar Journal, Frighten the Horses, and more. Her instagram handle is @ananyakharatt.