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…

YA AMAR

my moon, my most beautiful’

Neruda once,
Told the woman he loved
That the moon
Lived in the lining of her skin,
And I find myself wondering
Whether anyone will ever look at me that way.

ya amar –
Look at me
Like every atom in my body
Glows,
And notice all my scars
And bruises
Like the craters
I visit in my dreams,
Making angels in moon dust
Drinking camomile and honey tea
Gazing upon the stars and comets
That shattered into dreams
And pointed at my heart,
And whispered to each other
About how it was the place they went to die.

ya amar
Look into the crevices of my heart
Where dying stars sit
Like twinkling fairy lights and deeyas
On Diwali night
Waiting to be lit
And set on fire once more
By your eyes
And your voice whispering
Softly

ya amar.