a mango from the neighbor’s tree
lands on our balcony

& for a moment too long we forget

grief —: heat —: ant —: leaves,
carrying 10 times our weight

—: after Natalie Diaz’s Ink-Light

— — — — — — — — — — — —

I wrote this poem based on the photo above during India’s second covid wave in May. It was published by one of my most adored journals called the lickety~split, by one of my most adored poets Chen Chen.

The lickety~split describes itself as a twitter journal of “tiny worlds, big feelings” and only publishes poems that fit in a single tweet.

The etymology of lickety~split traces back to early 19th century to the phrase ‘as fast as lickety’ — ‘at full speed’: a fanciful extension of lick + split (verb), according to Definitions from Oxford Languages.