바카라śLime Shaved Ice in a Cone바카라ť
after Jeffrey Bean
Is like holding summer in my hands
Simrita Dhir explores optimism and resilience in three reflective poems. In her poetic landscape, memory and song; motif and colour; vulnerability and quirkiness, diversity and stories converge to reinstate hope and affirm possibilities
Is like holding summer in my hands
Like white sand settling into my hair
Like being 24 again and swimming in the deep Pacific
Like the waves tickling my toes
Like obliterating the unpleasant
Like starting afresh
Like loving
Like kind words
Like growing plants
Like yellow birds on palm trees
Like remembering the dead
Like missing the living
Like tearing up in the rain
Like being brave
Like holding hands
Like you are going to make it across
Like I am going be make it through too
Like everything is going to be okay
Like an inviolable promise
Like thank you
Like a big hug
Like the sun on my face
Like tangy strawberries bursting wild in my mouth
Like the memory of Grandma바카라™s breakfast potatoes
Like reading a Nikki Giovani poem
Like swinging to a Harry Styles song
Like meeting Rembrandt in a dream
Like perennial youth
Like becoming all that I was ever meant to be
Like striving to be right
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One Direction was a one-of-a-kind band바카라”
All of its members spunky with vibes distinctly their own.
Together they created a mood바카라”tantalizing, charismatic, inspirational,
Their songs drawing crowds, redefining love, affirming hope.
When the band broke up,
I cried, of course, I cried.
It was, after all, a phenomenal band.
As the guys began pursuing solo careers,
I took to cheering them all on,
rooting most fondly for Niall Horan바카라”the quintessential rock star.
But this poem is about another member of the band바카라”the newly minted legend.
Hey you, Harry Styles바카라” how you have risen to be a present-day wonder바카라”thinker, poet,
folksinger, master of surrealism, commentator on man, culture and world.
You are the real deal of the day바카라”incisive, inclusive, versatile바카라”you knit a universe together,
Your songs celebrating quirkiness,
Attesting vulnerabilities,
Hailing truth.
-------
Inside a California classroom,
We gather from the length of California and from places far beyond바카라”
New York and Fort Lauderdale,
Calgary and Melbourne,
Madrid and Damascus,
Tehran and Kabul,
Beijing and Kolkata,
Havana and San Salvador.
Myriad narratives crisscross the space,
Evoking memories and long journeys,
Truth and timelessness,
Ancient wisdom and new realities.
Always, always, I notice how our eyes are different yet same바카라”
Playful like the upside-down river that cuts through old town,
Deep like the ocean down the road,
A shared humanity binding us together like glue.
We are all stories,
Our stories are us.
(Simrita Dhir is a California-based academic and novelist. She is the author of acclaimed novels The Rainbow Acres and The Song of Distant Bulbuls.)