this is not a mere paper car ready
to cruise over a cardboard highway,
not merely a way to plaster our feelings
I’ll be your fearless driver in a world
of golden mines, full of silver dreams
and you know, when I’m away
from you peppy paper doll I
start to feel things are less real for us
behold, the red on the wild white paper
car is the fresh blood that I abandoned
on it from a recent miscalculation
I’ll wipe the potent machine clean for you
without your kisses and words
the world’s an ephemeral parking place,
a fragile wheel, but when you smile
there’s a giant sun in it
it’s not only a simple paper car, so
don’t feign you don’t know me
you know when I’m away
from you peppy paper doll I
start to feel things are less real for us
this is not a mere paper car ready
to fool our feelings
and sail over a cardboard highway
in North America or Paris
it’s one to discover
pirate skulls and bones,
kind monsters and mysteries and
shells to explode life’s lethal system
I wish I could buy this
paper car and its pretty paper doll
and we could fly like a solid plane
into the emerald cardboard sky
BIO: Aged 28, Amit Parmessur is from Mauritius. He has been published in around 85 magazines since starting to submit his poems late 2010. Dead Snakes, Heavy Hands Ink, Leaf Garden Press and The Houston Literary Review are some of the places where he has appeared. He currently edits The Rainbow Rose.