"Anjali Madhok is now going to sing, or recite, श्लोकs. So let us listen to Anjali." "What? Oh yeah, oh yeah. ॐ वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा Okay, okay. नमो नमो श्री सरस्वती ज्ञान कि देवी सरस्वती हंसवाहिनी सरस्वती वीणावादिनि सरस्वती नमो नमो श्री सरस्वती ज्ञान कि देवी सरस्वती" "Very good!"

messages on clementine rinds for once in my life i don't know how to feel you taste like pennies and that's alright with me the both of us are breathing in each other's ears our secrets speak different languages still your whisper's clear with you i feel grapefruit juice running in my blood i'm just a little confused what to think of us am i dreaming is it even you cassiopeia kiss me blue like the dragons in the parking lot ever heaving, flames and then exhaust constellate our fears with cinnamon sticks let's connect the stars help me hold the heavy parts of a heart feel me from afar many moons of waiting on a steady sun now i freeze in fear merge our fingernail horizons swear you'll catch my tears maybe sometime you can teach me how to hold on to your hand maybe next time when i'm bleeding i can call across the sand and when the ocean takes the lipstick from my face might you be there and as i'm walking empty steps in place will you hear my prayer am i dreaming is it even true cassiopeia show me what i'm meant to do like the angels in the submarine we hold water with our weighted wings

i've been finding it hard to get the right words out lately i'm losing sleep the smell of you sinks deeper into my sheets daily it's been a few weeks just like dried fruit i'll change but hold true to my essence but the deepest seed inside of me held a search for someone like you so much to digest heartbeat through my chest what is this (take a breath) heart starts to bend for a camera lens got to prove (good for you) and you're planting peach trees with every next tear i shed you tuck me into bed when i was like a child with my cheek on your shoulder you helped me see i was somewhat of a soldier when i feel you upon me the sights of a city infiltrate my eyes berkeley hills, crooked sidewalks manhattan metros and street shops where i hurt and i grew massachusetts trees, minneapolis breeze built a home out of you mixing pixels and stretching time zones mother tongues, chewing on collarbones we grew a tree sing you to sleep trusting in me wishing you peace what a gift to share the sun rest your head next to mine fifteen ended and begun every second of your life i never meant to make a storm the way the waves embrace the shoreline what a gift to stand arm in arm trusting in you, trusting in time so much to digest my ear to your chest what is this (what comes next) when i start to miss early mornings (tracing lips) once again i must remember (how to exist) till the blue will erode in the most of us (i wish it will) i'll stay praying for the both of us (singing at my window sill) fifteen, a million little ways one hundred and twenty one days

i've been waiting for a blessing hold my palm out to the painting and from here she'll take the aching so i'll wring the tears she's raining you saw through me never choose me i've outgrown the songs before me i'm unlearning all they told me take my wilted wooden soul but only if you swear to hold me i know i'm more than you came for i am worn from empty gestures ripples of immense ancestors i was born between two oceans still i'm taught i must surrender through skin, to him save me, lean in bodies of water in which i can wade and confess to her drip to descendants and still there are ways it's oppressing her teach me to sing with a heart that is kind, steady and strong reach me to again when the lakes have been drained and the rivers redrawn drift back, drift back to me