Ankita Anand is a writer-poet-performer based in Delhi, India. Her poems have been chosen to be part of an anthology featuring forty Indian poets below the age of forty, and her poetry and prose have won in competitions organised by Singapore Poetry, and Sampad Arts, UK. An archive of her publications can be found here: anandankita.blogspot.in

Mismatch

I loved you for the boy you were;
You loved me as the man you thought you were supposed to be.
Didn’t work.

Short-changed

They kept on offering
A penny for our thoughts;
We went on becoming
Penny wise, pound foolish.

Not with a bang but a whimper

It is not purposeful hard work
But making the effort
To go through every day
That kills us.
We die not so much of broken backs
As of hunched ones, and broken hearts
To survive that, to outlive the heart
Persistently getting nibbled at
By craggy incisors,
That is the test of gritted teeth.

Oxymoron

Every moment for scrutinizing eyes are delivered performances,
And then we lament they judge us by appearances.

Self-Control

To evade self-destruction
While being aware of the evil inside
Is to be in control.