Karuna Vellino

See Yourself

Protruding
imposterous
hardened clay on the wrong body
unfitting and awkward
makes you weep
when the man in the mirror
stares back
you want to
hack away
with a butter knife
if that’s what it takes

nothing fits
right
clothes clinging to
unholy places
making your form
a foreign house haunted
by a spirit begging for
escape

the two towers
must be
demolished
or else
you live like a secret
hidden
behind three layers
or more
just so you can bare
to see yourself

Memory Lapse 

ask your therapist about 
                                           the memory  
lapse, 
loose yourself 
         in every conversation, 
plot lines 
and               bloodlines                and lifelines.              

words blur 
                     and come to a boil 
                                 on every hot surface in the house


radiators steaming       almost on fire 
with what you cannot             
                                                                 grasp
with your                   tongue of a mind
so eager and empty 
                                                     all at once 


you don’t know who you are 
                      in comparison to who you were 
or could have been    
what dream      might have whispered           
                                                               your life 
into something         
 at least        a little more loveable

Karuna Vellino is a non binary disabled lesbian with a passion for writing and creation. In 2016 Karuna won the Carleton University Passages Short Story Competition for their piece 6 Signs You are Going to Get Your Heart Broken. They later went on to write their first poetry chapbook A Year In Violets, which was shortlisted for the Vallum Chapbook Award and later published by Grey Boarders Books. Their poem The 80s won Carleton Universities George Johnston Poetry Prize in 2020. They also received Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council grants to write and produce a staged reading of their play Five East. They are currently working on staging a full production of Five East and completing their second chapbook as well as their first full length poetry book. In their spare time they enjoy ice skating, spending time in nature, petting dogs, making collages and planning trips they can’t afford.