~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Kashiana Singh

I write poetry because

It makes me feel obnoxious, a woman in

awe of myself

Eating words instead of food

the gnawing exhaled into sound

not the vibrating grrr of a saw inside my head.

Poetry keeps me out of crowded rooms, places

I no longer wish to inhabit, like old music

it spreads itself into beginnings, perched

Settling, unsettling like pollen, the rat and

a wriggling night, so poised atop the trap

shrugged a body out

From glued coverlet, managing to twitch

awake, unlikely poem knocking at a dark

front door

Stubbornly playing ouija, impatient, never

enough patience for new editing, for

brewing another putrid coffee

The white space pays attention to bespectacled

eyes, listens to the landing thud of my language

ignores the cities settled

In the fullness of my middle, between silvered

strands, reclaims all my continents

finds cities

When an unlikely poem arrives, she rests

pokes herself into the half open window

of my room, reveals me.

When Kashiana Singh is not writing, she lives to embody her TEDx talk theme of Work as Worship into her every day. She currently serves as Managing Editor for Poets Reading the News. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills by Yavanika Press is a journey through 10 cities. Her newest full-length collection, Woman by the Door was released in Feb 2022 with Apprentice House Press.