If there is one language common to the world, it is the language of affection. Attractions swells, sex sells, motherhood tears the body apart, nostalgia seeps into the soul, heartbreak reverberates in the thrum of our blood as humans continue to love and lose. I’ve been trying to encapsulate those affections that different languages across the world express, through a myriad of stunning words. Sensations of love, lust and loss are fleeting through the course of our lives and yet forever, as we grow into the people we are meant to be. Eternal. So here it is – a series of poetry that captures affection in every syllable and word.

Dictionary of Affections is The Zoya Project language, common to the world…

KASHISH

‘attraction’

You were a dousing of kerosene
To the crackling flames of my soul
That made me rise and come alive in an intense heat.

My senses burning to the sound of your heartbeat
Love was the flow of blood in your veins
That matched the pounding in my head.

My untamed heart, tore at my ribs, a wild thing
To feel itself clasped in your fingers,
Throbbing, pulsating, beating.

Those feelings of uncontrollable cravings,
The ache of desire,
The thirst of longing.

As every bone and muscle beats in the thrum of a single word
Mingled in the sweat of our intertwined fingers.