local_library One Lover Asked

by Kiran Bhat

Published in Issue No. 286 ~ March, 2021

One lover asked: Why do you have so many lovers?

Kiran says: You see me as one person.

I see myself as one hundred.

Krishna married so many girls.

I also deserve so many husbands.

 

(Kiran is telling a lie.)

 

If one man were able to satisfy me,

That would be great,

But I am scared of other people.

I am too scared to give love.

 

It is best that I break myself into hundreds of pieces,

Give a little bit of myself to many men.

That way none of them can hurt me.

That way to all of them I am like a piece of sand.

They can throw me away into the ocean.

But it will do nothing but add to the silt.

 

 

account_box More About

Kiran Bhat is a global citizen formed in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, to parents from Southern Karnataka, in India. He has currently traveled to over 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. He is primarily known as the author of we of the forsaken world... (Iguana Books, 2020), but he has authored books in four foreign languages, and has had his writing published in The Kenyon Review, The Brooklyn Rail, The Colorado Review, Eclectica, 3AM Magazine, The Radical Art Review, The Chakkar, Mascara Literary Review, and several other places. His list of homes is vast, but his heart and spirit always remains in Mumbai, somehow. He currently lives in Melbourne. You can find him on @Weltgeist Kiran.