Depletion

By Samyukta Raghavan

crack the egg on the counter,

take apart shell from white,

yolk from albumen

you let it boil so much,

the other one already

died in the water.

cracked lip depletion;

extract breath from girl,

feed it to the other.

yesterday a friend told me

they leave their love in

little flowers everywhere

and i could only think about

how nothing ever lasts

the summer, not even the flowers.

i take apart love from object,

love from object,

love from object.

i went to a temple today and everyone

looked some god in the eye so willingly

but nothing has ever convinced me so much.

sit in the corner and watch them pray.

extract belief from woman,

extract girl from everything.

By Samyukta Raghavan