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Literature, PoetryMarch 9, 2014

Asphalt Story #84

Similarities I, by Adeel uz Zafar

In the back room of a bar
we made a deal:
your scars for my love,
the only things we had left
to barter with.

You sold your soul last week
for a pocket watch and
a faded photograph of a blue sky.
I lost mine some time ago,
like a dream I forgot in the morning
and didn’t know to miss.

Under the flickering lights,
we made a deal:
I pulled out my knives
and you pulled off your shirt.
We spread our wares on
the dirty table and got down
to the business of love,
the kind that required no soul
from either of us.

Strangers watched on,
making bets in our favour,
and drinking the last of the rain.
For a moment
tomorrow felt like
yesterday.

We made a deal:
your needs for my dreams,
the ones I’d forgotten about.
In the back room of a bar,
we flickered and faded
and spread our love
like dirty rain.
~ Kat Soini

Kat Soini is a Finn living in the UK, trying to keep a foot in each country but falling somewhere in between. An over-educated academic by day, she’s been writing fiction and poetry for a long time and is finally getting organised enough to actually put it out there for strangers to read. 

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Adeel uz ZafarFinlandKat SoinipoetryPoetry World Cupweekend poem

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DeOrc
DeOrc 5pts

Great poem :-)

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  1. Poetry Publications in 2014 | Kat Soini says:
    January 2, 2015 at 2:46 AM

    […] Asphalt Story #84 was published as a weekend poem in March which was a wonderful treat. It also represented Finland in the Poetry World Cup where it didn’t go any farther than the first round but the whole experience was fun. Later in the year I was honoured to be included in the three poems the magazine included in its Pushcart Prize Nominations following a vote. […]

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Over the coming weeks, long-time readers will notice things starting to change as the magazine pivots focus and direction. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, we can say only that we’re coming back. That we’ve been hibernating for long enough and that the world needs some positivity and reasons to hope amidst all the doom and gloom.

 

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