---

Like grunting bullocks trudging uphill,

with cartloads of yesterday's trash, behind, 

is this great tedium of breath and breath after.

Hover above the unwilling summit of joy,

then the headlong tumble into the thorny fall 

and roll and roll again, torn on rock face 

with fresh scars on old,

fumble back up hill in a haze,

keeping time to the choric knell,

with stale billows at the edge of ringed nostrils, 

fall into step, uncharmed.

A lease of mockery, not a romance, this.

The candy floss in the hands of the self-blinded crowd

blown away. 

It occasionally nudges,

though.

Terms unbroken, so, I live, 

to suffer another day.

---

Gayathri M. Hewagama is a Sri Lankan academic and a creative writer who explores both genres of prose and poetry. She began to produce art after a long and gradual process of learning the craft of literature, and following a teaching career spanning more than fourteen years as a lecturer in English, at University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. She earned her B.A and MPhil in English at her home university and a PhD in the same field of studies from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.  Her debut collection of short stories, Conquering Karma, was nominated for the State Literary Awards in 2023. Her most recent publication is a poetic exploration of love titled, Amber Lights. Gayathri is currently dividing her time between working on her next collection of poetry, and her academic research on British Pre-Modern and American Modernist literature.