Editor’s Note: A poem can inspire minds in the strangest possible ways. This poem might not find its exact visual representation in the image, but the artist found some words and images from the poem that led him to create this art-piece. It must be mentioned here that the image and poem do not share a one-to-one correspondence and yet the inspiration that the poem extended to the fine-artist somehow makes a case for it to be published in the collaboration section.

Skin aches, 

drenched in brine.

Summer months 

swell at the fingertips, 

dry tongues, calcified bones

melting, exposing all 

that’s been rigid in us.

There is a soft expansion, 

gasps, the body, a summer terrain 

craving a drizzle.

We’re all a strip of land, 

heaving, gently or crudely,

our bellies curling 

in breathlessness.

Displaced rationality,

tangled chaos, 

gratification smiling 

amidst damp nuisance,

as heat beckons, humming

against the glowing flesh. 

And always, always, 

the smell of eucalyptus 

canopied over the humid air 

to cut through the tantrums.

The world can wait.

Shikha S. Lamba is a jewelry designer and poet living in Hong Kong. She is the co-editor of an online magazine, Coffee and Conversations. Shikha’s poetry has been widely published in journals globally. In 2023 her poems were nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart prize.

Koushik Saha is an avid art enthusiast who is building a career in Graphic Designing. His hobbies include Theatre, Photography, Painting, Travelling. He hails from Panagarh, Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal.