I call life a water tank.
It continuously leaks from every little corner:
my niece’s love,
my mother’s art,
my father’s tears when his father passed away.
I’m clueless, no one has taught me how to put duct tapes to right places,
how to stop things from overflowing,
how not to overflow myself.
These tiny water drops are calling me to join their reckless dance,
but I’m used to floating between the tides.
It does not alarm me anymore, the aches: knowing your first love already had theirs, how little it matters if there’s outer space,
how a home is not a person and sometimes not even a place.
I call life a water tank,
my presence - running from the heaviness of it being motionless:
It stands still; I pass by; I ignore it.
And for my fragility whatever offerings this world might have,
I’ll protect my flaws as if they’re only thing I don’t have to mend.
With these colorless springs, I could live off another thousand years,
If I get to neglect all this love, the art
and the tears.
The Author
Ana Surguladze Ana is a nineteen-year-old student who has been going through some turning points of her life. One them is realizing that while fighting daily pressures of life, the only thing she doesn’t have to fight for is poetry. It flows from everywhere and she has no trouble catching it.
Poet's Commentary No art no love no tears- I consider this poem as one of the most intimate of all my work. It can be interpreted and related to in various ways but for me, it speaks of a well-hidden part of all our lives. We have so many opportunities to become the best versions of ourselves, so many sources of love and affection in everyday life but we constantly choose to ignore them. Maybe we do not always publicly declare but deep down we are afraid that we will never be strong enough to take all the love and enjoy all of the small things that cause us joy or pain.