Orbit: The Asian American Issue
Volume 15:3, Summer 2014
Puppeteer
The guitarist pulls strings,
giving life to a piece of wood
did the tree ever predict it would sing so sweetly
when the woodcutter was tearing at its side?
I should have noticed the strings dangling from your mouth
When you kissed me for the first time
Your tongue tied the other ends to my heart
So that with every movement of your lips,
my heart danced
And now that they are drifting away,
my heart feels the agonizing pull of tightening strings
tuned to the ears of lost pilgrims
It seems,
that all my songs will be played upon the strings of attachment
until they irreparably rip open my locked heart
So that no one can be denied its shelter
and all of its prisoners are set free
Anirudh "Eka" Dhullipalla is a poet born in Hyderabad, India and raised in Minnesota and North Carolina. Dhullipalla is a founding member of Sacrificial Poets, the North Carolina Youth Slam Team, and joined them on their first trip to Brave New Voices in Washington, DC. Since then Dhullipalla has featured in several venues in North Carolina, Georgia, England, New York and Washington, DC. He is a software developer and an avid tea sipper. http://toomanynames.com