Poems by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal 

Why I Cry 
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There is a storyteller
in my head. Thinking of the fate
of the rooster on the weathervane.
Hormones. How will the cicadas go
to the masquerade ball this summer?
The pinecones that landed
on the top of a fireplace will spend
the rest of their lives sitting there.
Nina Simone has been dead for 20 years.
I want to take ashes for glitter.
I am always reading elegies
and the poets and mothers are always dying.
Some are the wounds that only bleed
from the eyes. I do not have a sunflower
for you for every day until one of us dies.
Lizards. Bombs. Heartbreak warfare.
Our dogs have never seen the rainbow
the way we have. The loneliness
of pepper without salt, of butter
without bread. I wake up
from certain dreams without
wishing for it. A clove of wild garlic
is much better for our food
than all the love with which I make it.
Through the facemask,
I am obviously crying.
 

Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal is a writer, translator and educator. She was born in Palampur, India, and studied at St. Bede’s College, Shimla; Trinity College, Dublin; and Queen’s University, Belfast. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, German, and Italian and have appeared in Ambit, Bad Lilies, Banshee, bath magg, Cyphers, Gutter, Oxford Poetry, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, Rattle, The Irish Times, and elsewhere. In 2018, she was selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series. Supriya was the 2021 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. She is the author of The Yak Dilemma (Makina Books). 
 
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