Two Poems by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe

Little Cavities, Foreign Mouth

My lover
she had fangs.

My first love
my day one
turnedaskewteeth
snakeforktongue

Her father
told her to fix them.

I guess he couldn’t handle
a woman with teeth

like mine
she laughed.

They don’t know where she got them
— her mother’s were impeccable.

Their arrangement suited him.

I swear
I have never loved anything

more

than watching her

throw back her head
(t)rills
of concentrated
adulterated
molassthick

joy

gliding through her
alveoli.

Curse of a woman

In that God’s house where she lies still
born naked on the flagstone floor
forked tongues flick over younger ears
that they may hear what men ignore

She reaches for her brother’s cheek
supine upon a belly’s breath
sees how she saves the other one
shepherding him from certain death

You have to hand it to a man
this ancient pact that sex has made
that woman will not be believed
harks back to some uneven trade

a body broken / voice spoken
box you’re never meant to open

Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe is a poet, pacifist and fabulist. Born in India, she grew up across the Middle East, Europe and North America, before calling Ireland home. Founder of the Play It Forward Fellowships, she is poetry editor at Skein Press and Fallow Media, and contributing editor with The Stinging Fly. She is a recipient of the Next Generation Artist Award in Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and the inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award. Her debut poetry collection, Auguries of a Minor God, is forthcoming from Faber & Faber in July 2021.