I can’t force friendships
I can’t force myself to drink
25 ml of Rockland Rum and coke
When I’m abstaining from alcohol,
I can’t force myself to eat
Fried Rice and Hot Butter Cuttlefish
When my tummy is full.
How the heart has one woman now,
A place that used to have 25 friends,
By the age of 25. How can I
Saturate a chamber with one woman,
A place where 25 others you to be ?
How evolution is a sorry place to be sometimes.
How when we find our lungs,
We lose our gills. How when we find
Our heart, we lose our shoulders.
How when one finds a soul-mate,
He loses 25 other mates, those Ahoy-ers,
How like tree-to-tree hammocks,
We used to hold hands when small,
The same hands that we became conscious of,
As in social norms, and ceased to hold.
The same clasped palm that decorated
A face, with a curved line,
The absolute thrill of being abreast,
Without the need to turn inwards
And let face encroach on face
In the company of another’s taste.
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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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