Manufactured Love
Let not come a day
When we agree only
In shared hatred.
For I have seen people perish
With vitals running,
Smothered by necklaces
And embraces
Of stinking years
And rotten promises.
Leave me before this.
For a voice, or a vision,
If there is one
More binding than what
We have now for love;
But not for a vice,
Or a word gone unheard,
Or meanings distorted by lies.
But then why care?
And if you do
Insist upon staying,
Pray put on a shroud
Of manufactured love
That helps you sleep
And puts me to rest.
Ankit Raj is a former software engineer and rock band frontman from Chapra, Bihar, India. He teaches English at Government College Gharaunda, Karnal and is a PhD candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Ankit’s research articles have appeared in Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction (Routledge), ANQ (Routledge) and The Explicator (Routledge), and he has poems published/forthcoming in Brave Voices Magazine, Seafront Press, Discretionary Love and Trouvaille Review. Find him on Twitter @ankit_raj01
