Letitia Jiju

Gravity

—for Goofy

The first slate grey sky of December I imagined
a mole crab swept ashore. Carapace pressed 

against wet sand, her legs only know to tread
backwards even when facing seaward.

*

All that pinpricks our world tonight have
knuckled the empty that holds them:

gravity, as Einstein understood;
hard to effect love without consequence.

*

Harder to affect joy after
what colors, tipped suns you shored against my hand,

what I put away like a shell.

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Letitia Jiju is an Indian poet who through her work explores the intermingling of mother tongue, religion & generational trauma. Her poems have appeared/are forthcoming in trampset, ANMLY, The Lumiere Review, Moist Poetry Journal and elsewhere. She reads poetry for Psaltery & Lyre. Find her on Instagram/Twitter @eaturlettuce.