Plus One, Minus One.

By Udit Gor

There’s beauty in the cracks and the fissures of my heart. 

There’s a smile on my face, there’s ice cream in my shopping cart. 

My humor is fresh and relatable, my tears are poetry and art. 

One step forward, one step back, plus one, minus one, back to the start. 

My glass ain’t half full, ain’t half empty, it just lacks one drop.

Doing all of this for a single drop really needs to stop.

My memories I can stow away, my photos I can easily crop.

Plus one, minus one, one more time, let’s take it back from the top.

My broken heart, my tilted stage, my crumpled piece of paper,

Once an ocean, vast and mighty, now just wisps of vapor.

My heart, she won’t survive the tyranny of another heart breaker.

Plus one, minus one, right back to square one we take her.

My Saturdays in sweatpants, with books and tea and Taylor Swift.

They were lonely, they were sad, but they have seen a paradigm shift.

For I used to grieve the loss of jewels, now I revel amidst my thrift. 

Plus one, minus one, my eyes have opened, I finally see my gift. 

My pen, my word, the broken sword, my poetry and my rhyme.

The gentle virtues of my vices, the hopeful kindness of my crime.

My heart that is worth millions, how simply I sold it for a single dime.

Plus one, minus one, there and back again, but I’ll do it differently this time.

By Udit Gor