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…

 

LACUNA

‘a blank space, a missing part’

There are these absences
Sitting stagnant
Today
That prickle the air.
They sit here
At our table,
The dahlias in the crystal vase
Drooping
With the heavy weight of it.
Like the end of a long day,
The feeling of honey and anaesthesia
Running along every vein
Every muscle,
Every cell,
Sticky and dense.
They run around empty spaces and crevices
The space where
Your footsteps
Are prints in dusty floors,
Lying stagnant.
They urge me to reach out,
To tell you
To clean up before you go,
This mess,
This stifling presence of honey and anaesthesia,
These absences –
Lying stagnant at my table.

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.

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…

 

ITTEFAQ

‘coincidence’

Did the sky,
Set herself on fire
Only when I opened my eyes?
So that I could see her
Painted
With the essence of roses and marigolds,
Golden oil and ripened mangoes
Burning smoke and split white light

Did the clouds conspire
To burst open
Only when the raindrops could stick to my skin?
So that I could feel
The tears of the Gods
Salted with the purity
Of a new beginning
And sprinkled with a wind scented with fresh wonder.

Did you look at me
Like I was the only thing in the world
Only when I couldn’t see or feel?
So that I would never know
What it felt like to live within the arms of
A coincidence
Rather than just
Witness it

ताकी हर दिल की धड़कन में
मैं कह सकूं
एक इत्तेफ़ाक़ बसा हुआ है।

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…

 

FITOOR

obsession’

Today I heard a song.

A precarious melody
Hanging on the edges of the stars
Playing acrobat
Across fiery edges
That sparkle like liquid silver.

I heard it lilt across the moon
Unfurling the raat-raani
And clasping its fragrance to its chest
It danced across the cosmos
Painted in shades of midnight blue streaked with sapphire
And crowned a deep Prussian azure.

It waltzed and wandered,
The swirling beats and treble clefs
Swished craters in lustrous moon dust
Coating itself in a gown
Conjured
Of twinkles and tales
Lying dormant in the sky
Waiting to one day blink awake
Against slate-tinted clouds.

Today I heard a song.
A ballad
Writing a romance across the galaxy
And in that moment
I realised why,
Love crazed people
Drowned in the depths of ripe passion
And skipped heartbeats
Often counted the stars.

Today I heard a song,
Turned my telescope
So I could count every sharp-edged star
With the melody hanging off its edge
And found myself unable to stop.
उस फितूर में
सुप्त तारे भी चमक उठे ।

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…

 

FANAA

‘Destruction of self for love’

I made a wish
Upon a shooting star,
That seemed to illuminate
The sky
As it went
From a heartless black
To
Purple, blue and silver
For just a second
And found you

And as we rewrote the stars
Redrew the constellations
Upon our bodies
With our fingers
I found a song
Skimming my bare skin
That penned into the cavities of my heart
The alignment of your name
Whispering secrets of the universe
In my ear
That the world was made
In the shape of our intertwined bodies.

But shooting stars
Aren’t wishes waiting to be made
They are simply meteoroids
Falling from the sky
And as you let go of my hand
The song ceased
The pen marks across my body
Scratched
To nothingness.
And wishes across the world
Died.
As a shooting stars turned meteors
Sped across the sky
To a darker dawn
Where the light of the sun
Makes them and their wishes
Obsolete.
उस इश्क़ में, उस फितूर में मैं फ़ना हूँ।
जैसे ढलता हुआ तारा गिरकर
अपनी पहचान को खो देता है।

 

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…

 

ECCEDENTESIAST

‘someone who hides pain behind a smile’

We tell ourselves to hide.
Hide
From the pain
And the stares
Of people.
Who can’t seem to turn their eyes away
From the gaping wounds
That are torn through my heart
Staining my soul
With the crimsoned black
Of dried blood.
Hide.
Hide
From the whispers
And the pitiful looks
They give me
Hoping I’ll sew back the seams
Of your skin
So my naked soul
Won’t lie wanton
In all her glory
For all to look upon.
Hide.
Hide
The pain behind
The 43 muscles
It takes to smile.
For it is hard for them to understand
That wounds stapled together
Will bleed
From staple holes too.

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…

 

DESIDERIUM

‘An ardent longing for something lost’

That the moon had never looked silver
But more insipid white
And yet was never called so
Always confused me.
That the shadows that shone
Over the full circle of rock,
Making it appear like a sliver
Were nothing more than shadows.
That fishermen, didn’t throw lines
From sitting atop a crescent-shaped story.
That the stars were not fairies or wishes
Waiting to be told
But balls of gas
That never stayed constant.
That wonder could die
And be lost within the reaches
Of a milky opal
Awash in the wake of silvery lies
And tall tales.
miror aufugit ex mea oculi et cor meum
And in it was born desiderium.

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…

 

BASOREXIA

‘The overwhelming desire to kiss’

I smoked a cigarette
Let my lips form an ‘o’
Blew
And watched
Puffs and rings
Float in a sooty daze
And then dissipate.

Bubbles burst
In my stomach
As I thought
Of my lips
Just
Barely
Touching
The salted rim
Of a margarita glass.

Giggled as
Fireflies
Like fairies
Osculated
And
Caressed the curves
Of the moon.

Let the wonder soak through me
As I watched,
A cherry blossom
Pinked at the edges
With a cherry kiss
Tinting it’s center,
And saw the meandering honeybee
Kiss the petals
And the stamen
And with
A carefree nonchalance
Be on its way.

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…

 

ANAGAPESIS

‘No longer feeling any affection for someone you once loved’

I had not known that ballet
Was best watched alone.
That when we danced
On the cogs of an old clock
It was the tapping of your boot
And the clinking of my glass slipper
That was the tick tock that rang in our ears.
That swishing ball gowns
Were cumbersome to wear
And ballerinas were allowed to wear tiaras too.
Pirouette, relevé, plié, jeté
Were all something I could do
Without the need of your arms
On my waist
Your fingers in mine
Your lips on my forehead.
i πέφτουν έξω από την αγάπη
(I fall out of love)
And into anagapesis

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…

 

ALA RASI

‘anything for you’

I would catch
One hundred fireflies
And string them into a necklace
To sit in the hollow of your throat,
Peppering light kisses
Filled with heat,
And passion
Into the dip of your collarbones.

I would buy wishes in bottles,
And dreams in balloons
For you to dab on as perfume
And tie around your wrist,
So that when you wished
You could float
On clouds spun of candy floss
And wear lightning in your hair.

I would collect all my skipped heartbeats
And play them as a lullaby
For when you can’t sleep.
A melody that sounds like,
The tinkling of wind chimes
On a rainy day,
The sugary trill of a nightingale
When the moon is shaped like a smile,
The rushing of wind
Against a salty sea,
The famished growl of a tiger
That prowls in the jungle
Glowing like amber and obsidian.

? ?????.
? ?????.
I would.