Poem by Shloka Shankar

What If

Everything I envision
is either too self-centred
or too impactful due to
potentially more horrific
collateral effects.

I hold on to being myself forever –
at least in theory. Going in search
of coffee and inspiration at
warped speeds, I survive.

I pull the world into my soul
with an extra edge – my Zeitgeist
never a part of me.

Kibzi ka tu kiki:
I wonder at the standardized
codes of a fantastic conversation
that transcends all boundaries;
the grey cells that solve every
mystery (to love a woman)
in the real sense.

The language of colours
(after a few pegs of vodka)
in a life full of music, and
poetry to go with it;
I am invisible.

Did they even try to wake me?

Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer from Bangalore, India. Her poems and visual art have recently appeared/forthcoming in Otoliths, Jaggery, Literary Orphans, The Gambler Mag, text lit mag, Yellow Chair Review, and so on. She is the founding editor of the literary & arts journal, Sonic Boom.

Art can illuminate even the most elusive and difficult to comprehend ideas. Visual rules and tightly codified visual metaphors help scientists communicate complex ideas mostly amongst themselves, but they can also become barriers to new ideas and insights. Dr. Regina Valluzzi’s images are abstracted and diverged from the typical rules and symbols of scientific illustration and visualization; they provide an accessible window into the world of science for both scientists and non-scientists.