Today's poem is by Vandana Khanna

[Even the oracles know]
       

Even the oracles know there are different ways
to lie—through needle and thread, through skin
and breath. They know what it's like to go to bed
alone, the dark eating away at the soft skin of night.
Once, the hall was thick with poets and their wine-
soaked songs. Once, a girl could trace them along
her lips like a humming, like a fever, feel her wide
mouth blister into prophecy. There's no telling
what a girl will do with an empire breathing
down her neck. How hard it is to sing with the past
choking in her throat, with dark stories knocking
against teeth. Even her dreams are stitched with
omens, dreams where she pulls birds from the sky
with just her thoughts. Air rippling with black wings.
Shiny, yellow eyes. There's no telling what a girl
will do when she finally opens her mouth. Even
the oracles won't know what song she will sing.

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Copyright © 2023 Vandana Khanna All rights reserved
from Copper Nickel
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission