Sanjana Nair
Will Love Be Better This Year or Devoid
I want this body
to want less
The plunder of a nation,
a capsule swallowed, without
consideration. A blame, an addiction.
I understand
how a person
can become an entire country,
an imperial loss.
And desire
isn’t in my organs
these days,
though hunger is.
How hungry, fat and fed,
is it fair to be?
Yes, the ocean needs purging,
but do I really want to reminisce
about the moment my hip knew
how to find your mouth, seaside?
All these small conquests;
oh, the lost continents—
Sanjana Nair’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Spoon River Poetry Review, Fence Magazine, JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, and The Equalizer. In a prior lifetime, she was part of a performative series in NYC named Emofru and The Lady Apple. Her collaboration between poet and composer was performed at Tribeca’s Flea Theater as well as featured on NPR’s Soundcheck. Nair lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, and is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).
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