‘Rings of Saturn’ by Karan Kapoor

Ma / kneads
dough / breaks her
nail / blames him

Come nightfall / he bears
home / the bluegreen serpent
ring / once adorning Queen
Victoria / Ma turns
it like a planet / between
forefinger and thumb /
examines / the wound
of light / refuses
to wear it / stresses
she might accept / if ever
/ one of the water ice
rings of Saturn

My father always stands
against the sky / even god
fails to compel his eye /
yet he goes / to the terrace /
stares / at the sky / all night /
in the morning / a blue
ring / around each
iris / offers her
a knife

From issue #15: spring/summer 2023

About the Author
Karan Kapoor is an MFA candidate at Virginia Tech. They have been awarded or placed for the James Hearst Poetry Prize, Frontier Global Poetry Prize, and Bellevue Literary Review Prize. A finalist for the Tusculum Review and Iron Horse Literary Review chapbook prizes, their poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in AGNI, Shenandoah, Colorado Review, Cincinnati Review, North American Review, and elsewhere. Their fiction is forthcoming in JOYLAND and the other side of hope. Their translations have appeared in The Offing and The Los Angeles Review. They are the Editor-in-Chief of ONLY POEMS.