The Caterpillar
Death is a funny thing
I care to understand,
upon the backs
of mother’s hands
who cradle the scars
of eastern sunrise,
or cooking oil,
or prayer plumes
burning for fathers
of foreign lands
and grandfathers
who held them
when they, too, were young
with strong lungs
an iron heart
cocooned within it:
a caterpillar,
a butterfly,
a feather,
a son
My Mother & Me
Tonight:
a) the blue moon aslumber in seagrass
b) a speckle of sand fills with floodwater
A mother:
a) monkey rubs oil into the furs of her daughter
b) raccoon coos for her lost son
A young:
a) porcupine drips in tears of blood
b) tiger counts his claws
Together:
a) we imagine extinction
Vikesh Kapoor is a poet and multidisciplinary artist from rural Pennsylvania. These are his first poems. He attended the Tin House Winter Workshop in 2024. He has received scholarships from Poets House, Kundiman and Grub Street. Kapoor was a finalist for The Sewanee Review’s 2020 Autumn Contest. He can be reached at vikeshkapoor.com and @vikeshkapoor on IG/Twitter.