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…

OPIA

‘The intensity of looking someone in the eye which is both invasive and vulnerable’

I used to decorate my eyes
With the light
Of love
Hoping you would fall,
Deep into the depths
Of my soul
And curl into the crevices of a star.

I used to decorate my eyes
With the glow
Of stones and pebbles
Dappled by the sunlight
Immersed under the water
Of a fluid river
From the banks of which you can
Uproot sunflowers and violets
To adorn my hair.

I used to decorate my eyes
With the darkness
Of ink
From the thousands of letters
You carve into my skin
With every kiss you press to my temple
And every sweet nothing
You graze against my ear.

I used to decorate my eyes
With the dreams
I had for myself
And for you
Until you plucked them
From my eyelashes
And set them free
So our wishes
Could fly upon gilded clouds
And the wing of a kaleidoscopic butterfly
Until they come true.