Poem

Karthika Nair

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Original language

Habits: Return

Habits: Return

Habits: Return

Painful to lose, far
too easy to recover. Turn around,
and there once again, unblinking,
it waits. Inevitable, immanent,
that thing you would flee but seem stuck
with forever, almost.
Almost.
Almost a lisp, less than a hare lip?
There are habits and there are habits.
Breathing is a habit I try to acquire.
You are the one I try to shed.

© 2012, Karthika Nair

Karthika Nair

Karthika Nair

Karthika Nair published her first book of poems, Bearings, in 2009. Her other works include a book of children’s fiction and a work entitled DESH: Memories inherited, borrowed, invented. Her poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies. She writes in English.

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Poems

Poems of Karthika Nair

CONSTANCY V

Eight Ways to Infiltrate Dreams of Battles for Dancer-Vampires

Constancy I

Constancy VI

Breath

Constancy III

Habits: Return

Habits: Resistance

Close

Habits: Return

Painful to lose, far
too easy to recover. Turn around,
and there once again, unblinking,
it waits. Inevitable, immanent,
that thing you would flee but seem stuck
with forever, almost.
Almost.
Almost a lisp, less than a hare lip?
There are habits and there are habits.
Breathing is a habit I try to acquire.
You are the one I try to shed.

Habits: Return

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