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Death by Language, by Nikita Parik

6/1/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, by Katsushika Hokusai (Japan) 1814

Death by Language

(for Katsushika Hokusai and Pablo Picasso)

The midday sun turns 
muted ochre, bee-buzz
softens to a lull, I am 
falling into my phone's
lockscreen. Pale blue
turns azure, now sapphire,
now yale, now midnight
blue as I dive deeper; 
the texture of water 
is ice on gooseflesh.

Now here is the promise 
of a thousand nirvanas!
Delicate pink tentacles
on skin, mouth wide-open 
onto my sex, mouths that 
contain thunderstorms, 
mouths devoid of language,
any language, all l.a.n.g.u.a.g.e...

The sea evaporates into 
sunlight- my friend laughs
and says how an orgasm 
is a 'little death' in French- 
"We call it la petite-mort".
Maybe all pleasure is death, 
some deaths, pleasure?
His laughter echoes, then 
transmorphs into Picasso
on the wall: here the woman
becomes the octopus. 

I stare at it until sunlight 
evaporates again, and I,
I am her, but also myself,
the octopus, & the painting
staring right back 
into my own eyes. 

Nikita Parik

The recipient of Nissim International Poetry Prize II 2020, Nikita Parik holds a Master's in Linguistics, a three year diploma in French, and another Master’s in English. Diacritics of Desire (2019) is her debut book of poems, followed by Amour and Apocalypse (2020), a novel in translation. She was the former Assistant Editor of Ethos Literary Journal, and currently edits EKL Review. Her works have appeared in Rattle, U City Review, The Alipore Post, Vayavya, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Bengaluru Review, and others.
Picture
Reclining Nude, by Pablo Picasso (Spain) 1932
1 Comment
AVERI SAHA
6/18/2021 01:15:34 am

I love the surreal in your poems. It transports me to a different plane of reality.

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