I’ve always remembered, and will continue to do so,
the grandmother of a little girl 
brought to life by tiny, simple letters
I found her on a dog-eared page of a book at the age of 4
It was over her departure I cried, tears falling down to the time-worn 
almost-black sofa in the living room in my house
That was the first time
words hit me 
so hard that seeds of them were planted deep within me
They later bloomed...

I’ve always lived in a house with an attic,
my fingernails forever dusty from running along
abandoned window sills, drawing spirals on wood left to wilt.
Underneath tent-shaped rooftops or
chestnut beams, skylights cracked in the centre
or musty vacuums of times long forgotten, 
lies my trainers, laces undone, soles still wet with mud from 
the only time I’ve ever won a medal, and 
my tea-stained mug from that one trip to Paris, 
rose tinted ceramic, and my first wax...

Dear not-quite-one-year-old me
That CT machine looks scary, I imagine that's true
Maybe it's just a spaceship
After all, you're going to be the first kid on the moon

Dear two-year-old me
The hill is the only way home, even if it looks steep
Don't close your eyes when the car climbs it
Open them, and look at the trees

Dear three-and-a-half-year-old me
You have a little brother! I know you hoped for a girl,
At least he won't steal...

(New!) Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jmV8G-qJypjfZnn5eu8oZc_JtDddnNJ7/view

half an hour, half a bite, half a life,
sometimes I feel half full of lies.

oh, i haven't told you about that before?

i guess there’s a lot of things i haven’t told you of the late.

secrets i haven’t breathed into your ever listening ears,
or exhaled into your coconut lotion hands
that always catch the words in my tears.

did you know that when I yawn I fall into the vacuum behind my ears ...

A permanent pit in my stomach
Lives a swarm of bees
That swarm free
Stinging my stomach lining
As if they are attempting
To protect me from thoughts
That are threatening
My body, their home
Intrusive reminders of the past
Leaving a stinger
In disintegrating fat
It hurts, but who am I to complain? 
Because with a stinger
Comes a burnt out flame
Taking his last breath and final buzz
I can’t help but feel irritated 
Silly bee, you’ve faded ...

I guess you could say I’m lucky.
My home life is great and I’ve never been bullied
I’ve never done drugs,
And, other than the smallest sips from my mom’s wine when I was younger,
I’ve never drinken alcohol. 
And I know these are all good things,
But it seems like the people who’ve seen the worst of the night,
Love the sunrise so much more,
And can write poems that they don’t feel the need to erase.
So sometimes...

What I wouldn't give
                To live in a world
Where people fell in love
                Not with money, but with minds

our love is strong, like a diamond
                 only we can destroy

How could a place
                 As beautiful as this
Allow itself to be separated
                 By the socioeconomic divide

our love is beautiful, a self portrait of justice
                  and we draw it proudly

Why do we let ourselves
                  Be less than our worth
And more...

https://youtu.be/el0sQl6u3WE 

https://youtu.be/el0sQl6u3WE 

I am from Christmas full bellies, presents, and Christmas hats 
From Le Reveillion: Mozza sticks, perogies, and spring rolls 
From bonjour and au revoir, to chien, and petite 
From humid air, airport shopping, swaying palm trees, and sandy beaches 
And from seasoned, fall-off-the-bone ribs each year in a Saskatchewan kitchen 
I am from surfing the big wake, floating at Kinsmen, and ice-cold marina popsicles. 

I am from a red and white maple leaf flag  
From a maple tasting waterfall to...

Accident of birth,
God’s hand conjured a curse,
and Mr. Vohra was born with a disease,
called the hunt of self-worth.
 
Where he’s from they got it skewed,
It makes no sense, it’s real stupid,
They honour love by killing it,
And the village elders play cupid. 
Corruption’s a steroid that they gobble down with chips and tea,
He grew paranoid and lost his faith in society,
He saw men pray to devis and put their wives on a...

it is April. forever’s as far as tomorrow but the sky is so close it stings.
    the fetor of the dogwood tree we drove away from six years ago
seeps through my bedroom window. 

last night at the dinner table my father announced he didn’t believe in free will,
so we bowed our heads to worship Influence.
        what I didn’t say: freedom, naked, is yesterday. 

dad, does it count as backfiring
if I’m wrestling         the gun to...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aVBm-na9nRMyqDPKQZrEZtKB5obX7M7p/view?usp=sharing

Light pink melted onto a powder blue sky,
fusing with the fuchsias and indiscreet reds.
See the orange sun as the centerpiece
when it sets, as a mother sets down her baby
on the softest of beds.
See the details on the clouds before they fade away.
It’s as if God painted the sky himself.
So beautiful you could cry; so mesmerizing that you try with your outstretched arm to touch this real-life painting.
Feel the cold air on your...

Humans                                are                        just                                        monkeys
            With                                    Twitter and                         Wi-Fi
        Who                     think they                        are so                                     cool
                since                             they                             have the                                newest
            phone


Humans                                are                        just                                        monkeys
            With                 three-piece suits                        and                         pompous speeches
                      Who                 think                they are            so          charismatic
            since            they                     got                     elected                            for
                        President


Humans                             ...

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," I said 
"I tried to"
She just smiled, showing all her melancholy 
the last leaves falling from her dying canopy

I don't know if she forgave me
I don't understand her
But you didn't try to
In the end, like everything else, she died
because of the things that you didn't do
 The things that I tried to tell you

Now, the aftermath is unfolding
and you still can't see it
all your eyes...

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," I said 
"I tried to"
She just smiled, showing all her melancholy 
the last leaves falling from her dying canopy

I don't know if she forgave me
I don't understand her
But you didn't try to
In the end, like everything else, she died
because of the things that you didn't do
 The things that I tried to tell you

Now, the aftermath is unfolding
and you still can't see it
all your eyes...

In the past 12 months, our country has been torn
 strangled, stifled, gasping,
gagging, screaming, 
 Hospitals full,
Nurses running
faces bruised,
and bloodied
covered by masks. 

Grandparents dying,
people denying,
reality, crying
for change.
 we may lose these battles
but we will win this war
We will survive.

We will try to go on
If not forward, then not backward. 
Running in place, racing a race that you can't win
someone is missing, but we won't lose.
Surviving like animals
Grabbing...

in July 2019
132 villages in India reported no births of girls since the start of last year

when confronted, the villagers said
It’s a coincidence
officials called it 
part of a custom
while I
salivated the word slaughter

drool dribbles and the tongue shrivels
trying to scrape massacre off the tip of my teeth
I wonder
if the girls went missing before their hearts first spoke
or if they knew each other at all
I wonder
if to be...

You see them
Reach out to them
You feel
    The icy air
        The oxygen
            The silence 
Pressing up against you, suffocating you
Because you can’t breathe
You have to tell your lungs that
Air is not a foreign particle  
You have to tell your ears that 
0 decibels
Isn’t gonna make you go deaf 
Because they are everywhere
And their presence will not go unannounced 
The missing shapes of them
Where they used to be 
Like a cookie cutter cut-out  ...

Reflection
 
 
Waking up… who is that? I ponder within.
Chilly. Morning sunshine pours, feathered wonders sing endlessly…
Can the sunshine cleanse my tainted mind?
 
I fear getting up… seeing it. The horror hidden somewhere near
in a void that is filled with endless portrayals of me.
How can I ever look? I decide I mustn’t. 
 
Somehow, I do anyways. Frozen toes and all,
slipping out from under the comfort of my pale sheets. Almost as pale...

Accident of birth,
God’s hand conjured a curse,
and Mr. Vohra was born with a disease,
called the hunt of self-worth.
 
Where he’s from they got it skewed,
It makes no sense, it’s real stupid,
They honour love by killing it,
And the village elders play cupid. 
Corruption’s a steroid that they gobble down with chips and tea,
He grew paranoid and lost his faith in society,
He saw men pray to devis and put their wives on a...

Performance: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZcGFvAYD2wNDkd-nU5Ubdk-MIxmakM44/view?usp=sharing


Dear God,
 
I don't go to church. I don't know one Bible verse. I don't know much about faith and religion other than what I've learned in school. Yet, I think of myself as someone who is spiritual. And I believe if you are true, you are a kind, fair and honest soul. I believe there's a possibility that when I die, I will meet you up in the clouds in an everlasting haven to spend the...

after girls generation (snsd)

the song says make em
feel the heat so i don’t wait.
i swallow the sun & let it pop
against my cheeks, burn
the tip of my tongue into
yellow. five minutes before
physics class my body melts.
goo sinks from my collarbones,
sticky & glossy. i’ma be
the hottest in this spot. ironic that
here, too, the sunset refuses to
fade, like a pop chorus
that overstays its welcome.
in thousand tasty, the goldfish ...

You humiliated me in your palace 
because I only have two arms, two hands, and eight and a half fingers
that bled when I laid your sage green glass tiles
and ached when I painted with brushes as stiff as your neck that strained to stalk me 
You berated me in your palace
because I am not some freak of nature or force of magical power
that could teleport from one room stabilized by pearl quartz pillars to another
or...

You humiliated me in your palace 
because I only have two arms, two hands, and eight and a half fingers
that bled when I laid your sage green glass tiles
and ached when I painted with brushes as stiff as your neck that strained to stalk me 
You berated me in your palace
because I am not some freak of nature or force of magical power
that could teleport from one room stabilized by pearl quartz pillars to another
or...