a taste of “Through The Mud Grows The Lotus”
3 selected poems from Divya Adu’s upcoming poetry collection, Through The Mud Grows The Lotus, the 5th in her oeuvre.
“Love me”
I want to let you love me.
I want to feel you jones inside my bones and creep into my wind pipes,
give me your breath and bring my heart back to life.
Find my gut and tear every butterfly up…
I’m strong until someone asks me to love them—
I sabotage my way out of everything because I’m scared to be hurt—
I’m more scared that I’ll like it and be okay with it all..
Be okay with you loving me and all my flaws
I want to let you love me.
I want to feel you running in my mind and searching for safety within the cavities of my walls.
I hope it’s sweet when my sugar falls…
I want to let you love me…
“Rent is due”
Loaned my heart to a crook,
the payment was due and as crooks do he was broke before he hit the front door.
This home is empty and I’m thinking about evicting a body.
I could kill him.
I could kick him out,
I could scream,
I could yell,
And for what?
Rent is due and I’ve gotta figure it out.
Rent is due and I need to find a new way to cope.
Rent is due and I’m tired of feeling alone.
Rent is due and they don’t care who’s home
I gotta get up…
The answer to my problem was learning to be a crook too.
Scammed my way to a new home where the mortgage is paid
A squatter for love,
A nomad for affection,
In search of anything that I can call home
Not knowing home was me all along…
“Summer’s over—”
As I lie in bed and reminisce about the summer sun breaking
through the layers of my baby oil and nutmeg foundation.
Old lovers' lips feel so sweet.
Summer lovers who only put the tip in make me wish I had more.
Summer is over.
The heat is gone and so are they.
They were never meant to stay,
Never meant to go all the way.
Summer is over.
So is the moisture between my thighs,
The racing of my heart,
The sweat on my brow,
And the black lace secrets I’ve pulled to the side.
How sweet Anita sounds bound to a stereo.
Summer is over…
