Eureka Series: Natural Selection For The Lonely Individual
Anoushka Kumar
Today's poem is by Anoushka Kumar
Natural Selection For The Lonely Individual
Cento with lines from Hanif Abdurraqib, Solmaz Sharif, and Cameron Awkward-Rich
I keep dry when the rain comes.
I have infinite skin. I know what it is to walk into the mouth of an unfamiliar morning and feel everything.
There was an inlet I pulled over once to watch the sunset, which was still another hour or so away, the light just low enough there to begin to change.
I have a dream in which I love the world. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children, all of them.
I should’ve stayed.
I suppose this is survival. There are no borders, only wind.
Maybe we both long for an era when there were less things to record death.
I will love those who no one else thinks to remember.
Copyright © 2025 Anoushka Kumar All rights reserved
from Jet Fuel Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission
Anoushka Kumar (she/her) is a student and writer from India, with work forthcoming or published in Poetry Northwest, DIALOGIST, Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. She serves as poetry reader for Muzzle Magazine and likes wood-panelled flooring. Find more of her at anoushkakumar.carrd.co.
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