I’m famous for procrastination;
I put things off til almost too late
And then I rush to get things done.

Well I’ve really done it this time.
The Church bake sale is tomorrow
I’ve promised them eleven cakes.

I’m famous for my Yum-yum cakes,
Rich with fruit and coconut.
They sell like hot dogs at a fair.

The ingredients are all lined up -
They only lack the blending
But my mixer just froze up and died.

So now I’m really in a mess
No time to go and get repairs
I’ll have to do it all by hand
And I will go stir-crazy.
ljm

Jab tak teri yaadein meray saath hain
Main tanha hokar bhi tanha nahin...
(Urdu and Hindi)

English Translation

As long you're memories are with me
I'm not lonely even when i'm lonely...

I’m not who I’ve always been,
The world that lies outstretched before me,
Is not the only one I’ve seen,
I’ve travelled on the tails of comets,
I’ve burned up in the hearts of stars,
I’ve been spat out of supernovas,
That left me scattered near and far,
I have dined in distant galaxies,
And taught the birds to sing,
I’ve danced for a whole lifetime,
Upon Saturn’s dusty rings,
I’ve been there long enough,
To learn what makes the willow weep,
I’ve sung celestial lullabies,
That sent the moon to sleep,
I’ve been both the flowering water,
And the stone that blocks it’s way,
I’ve been frozen, I’ve been molten,
And I’ll be again someday,
Though I’ve been a billion things,
This is the first one that can smile,
I’m pieces of the universe,
Living as human for a while….!

prowles through my geography.
He is imperious in his flat paws
and dark, voluminous gaze.

His prowl, never the same, twice
around me. Learning the veins
and arteries of memory.  He
walks the rope of yesterday.

Black and sleek, he sways,
the tension oblique in it's
slant towards the cage bars.

I hear his rumbling response .  
He shaves the vowels of his
experience.  Glares like

tomorrow the world will end
With the slap of his jaw.
fhe end of the bars

never meant anything.  He
lumbers into my waiting gaze.

I feel the cold cold stare
of night falling on me.
He smiles in satisfaction,
paces again through my
tears.



Caroline Shank
January 14, 2022