A Steal for a Steal
Her orchard was robbed of Avocados
Yesterday the branches kissed the ground
With countless Persea pears
But today, they were barren –
Even the unripe ones wrested
She had phosphated the trees
Kept the stems from rot
Nursed the bole like a mom and
Nothing to show for the joules
Today the branches were clean shaven
Like an empty dark womb
The loot untraceable
Her defining barbed wire boundary
Had turned tinsel
Around the grove
Her easy green gold was open for the haul
Without camo-uniformed rifled guards
No canines walking thru the orchards
No drones collecting video evidence –
Of the get-away pickup trucks
The warty Avocado was cash
Akin to marijuana-pods
She fell apart with worry and gloom
A-l-m-o-s-t
She sulk-laughed at the protection
The modest Avocado needed
And recalled her role-model of yore
Khadija, Mother of Islam
An entrepreneur who’d faced
Stark caravan robberies
With strategy and kindness
Inspiration winged and
She decided to raid the Avocado-mafia lords
Of their exploited laborers and trained pillagers
She’d educate and arm them with skills
Her robbery would bear fruits
For the hands of green pick
And the organized criminals
Would be left holding
The castoff tail
Of the escaped salamander
Her smile ripened like a ready fruit
Celestial Womb
Our solar system formed
But the making of a planet
In between Mars and Jupiter
Didn’t happen
Mounting pressure from
The surroundings echoed
Fit in, fit in, fit in
Be the planet meant to be
The conforming memos
Diffused and spread
From the clouds of dust
And from gravity’s rumble but
Conception couldn’t kowtow
Against the grain
No, it couldn’t fit in
The rules of the birth of
The planet-to-be
Were contrary and puzzling
Rocky sphere or a gas giant
Inner circle or an outer one
Stuck at the cusp of a binary world
Its core belonged nowhere
It looked like
A natural miscarriage ensued
An explosive break-up
The cursed pockmarked stones
Showed an iconic ruin
All scabs
At first the adapting strain
On this cosmic ball
Appeared like stress fractures
Of dis.in.te.gra.tion
But a closer look revealed
A breaking away from the rising sway
The Asteroid belt stayed its orbit
And staged a new rocky garland
As a part of our Milky way
The pressure to conform is tremendous on LGBTQ+ individuals. Starting from the parents, well-wishers and systems – all chant the song of suppression. The influences, knocks and punches remain relentless. This poem hopes for a new course, fighting the label and muting the othering.
The Ambience of Lighting
The Florida Manatees
Are turning lean even though
They aren’t on skinny fashions
Noom didn’t advise weight loss
Yet their chiseling is colossal –
In many-many hundreds of pounds
Their rotund body of yesterday
Is thin as Baikal seal
This is stark starvation
In famine waters
The fertilizer laden run off
Has spread an algal bloom rug
And stolen the pervasive sea grass
The sewage has darkened the water
Hiding off the coastal light
The kelp nubs are seeking the wispy rays
Through the murky environs
Manatees that once gobbled
Shoal and Marsh grass
Are now looking for any greens
Cabbage, Iceberg, Romaine lettuce
They’ll feast on Widgeon sward
But now the empty brine solution
Is unadulterated desert
The recessed light hideaway is wrecked
Who knew sun’s showing
Was a logarithmic need
Even under sea
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Jayanthi Rangan’s poems have been published in Zoetic Press, Stonecrop, Rubbertop, Eclectica, Elevation Review, Rigorous, Poet's Choice, Wingless Dreamer and Indolent Books. Her short stories have been published in Twisted Vine Literary Publication, Corner Club Press and Bookend Review. She also teaches science and is a town meeting member.