You’re born, with a barometer
On every tip, sahara to the taiga
And yet, you hope to god
You never have to grow up
And learn the art of survival.
With survival comes
Thickening armadillo skin
A steady heart that is a contra-ataxic constant
A soul that ransacks and evicts
Every possible life, or her vestige.
And you’re dressed in a poker face,
That could hold centuries of survival stories
Together, in the frigid temperatures of shelved ice
Layered to become “cool”; perhaps “cold”,
Hoping to god you still bear
A bevy of lifeforms
Reindeer and mosses, foxes and lichens,
Koala bears and walruses
Inside your Arctic Tundra.
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Published by meandererworld (Dilantha Gunawardana)
Dr Dilantha Gunawardana graduated from the University of Melbourne, as a molecular biologist, and moonlights as a poet. He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Botany, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Dilantha lives in a chimeric universe of science and poetry. Dilantha’s poems have been accepted for publication /published in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Canary Literary Magazine, Boston Accent, Forage, Kitaab, Eastlit, American Journal of Poetry, Zingara Poetry Review, The Wagon and Ravens Perch, among others. Dilantha too has two anthologies of poetry, 'Kite Dreams' (2016) and 'Driftwood' (2017), both brought to the readership by Sarasavi Publishers, and is working on his third poetry collection (The Many Constellations of Home). Dilantha’s pet areas of teaching and research, include, Nitrogen Fixation, RNA biology, Phytoremediation, Agricultural Biology, and Bioethics & Biosafety. Dilantha blogs at – https://meandererworld.wordpress.com/ -, where he has nearly 2000 poems.
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