Vaccine
by Susmita Paul

Standing at the edge of the planet,
Looking outward –
The ocean of the cosmos
Acts on osmosis:
Sour dried grapes in sweetened water
Do not lose the tang
Snapping the band
That held it all together.
Instead
The nebula tells you, that
You only see what you know
Horse, crab, spider-
The stars tell you
You only know what you should
At point X in time.
Beyond the now
There is a cloud of things
Hanging there
For the Y point of time to arrive.

We stand at the edge of the planet,
Now,
Waiting for time to reach point Y.

Image: STUART BUCK  is a visual artist and award-winning poet living in North Wales. His art has been featured in several journals, as well as gracing the covers of several books. His third poetry collection, Portrait of a Man on Fire, is forthcoming from Rhythm & Bones Press in November 2020. He is the art editor for Kanstellation Magazine and available for commissions all year round. He can be contacted via Twitter or E-Mail

Susmita Paul is an emerging writer in English with only a couple of English poems recently published in ‘Montauk’. ‘ Himabaho Kotha Bole’ (When Glaciers Speak) (Kaurab, 2019) is her only book of Bengali poetry. She is a Zentangle-inspired artist and an independent researcher. She is also Mother to a curious five-year-old. She lives in Graz, Austria.