324. The secret universe between us

 

Once my lips

danced across the arch of your brow,

a tiny constellation was born ~

And in the very next breath,

the secret universe between us

was pinned to my heart by a thorn ~

Nestled within a cozy Unicode window,

Saturn and Venus form a trine ~

A little wildflower, a tiny butterfly,

flutters across your world to mine ~

That's when, inside my chest,

a thousand fireworks flicker and shine ~

The gravity is fierce

in a piece of cookie, a warm mug of tea,

or a slightly burnt vanilla cake ~

This stardust addiction

tugs so hard at my heartstrings,

leaving an aching black hole in its wake ~

As a nebula of anxiety swallows me

on a deep and dark midnight ~

that is when your name appears,

washed in the phone screen's white light ~

Just minutes before the end of an eon,

a brief eternity takes flight ~

I do not know baby, when,

nor do I have the slightest idea how

Our secret universe was born ~

I only know that, as stubborn as you are,

it is pinned to my heart by a thorn ~

_______

I originally wrote this piece in Sinhala (you will find it here) and casually dropped it on my Insta stories. Then a couple of my 'non-Sinhala speaking' friends reached out asking for the meaning.

Taking the trendy shortcut, I ran the original poem through one AI, then another, then another. But all three AI tools failed miserably to capture the poetic essence of it. So last night, I ended up re-creating it myself.

NGL, recreating this English version took significantly longer time than writing the original poem. I shared the first draft with 10 people, and 9 approved. So voilà, I'm publishing it on the blog! 

So wdy think? Should I start writing more in English?