We touch
accidentally at first,
not knowing
a storm would rise.

Sometimes anger is
not the only emotion
that reigns when clouds
form.

How do you describe need?
when its collecting at every
nerve ending in your body

and the shock that happens
when it is met with the same
eagerness.

A cabin in the woods
warmed by a fire
between bodies
as beads of water
flow from the deepest
wells of need and want.

The clouds form and break
through the climax
lightning — a shudder through
the bodies before they pour.

This is a poem based on the…

Most people wade slowly
into the swimming pool-
right from the shallow end
-when it's their first time
learning how to swim.

When I first saw you
the sun danced
in the clear blue
surface of your eyes
and made them glitter.

Most people wade slowly
into love but I jumped
in like a fool as if the water
was your arms waiting to
embrace me.
It was my first time - drowning.

They say you can’t learn to swim
without being in the water
but drowning is the unexpected way
you pulled me in and out of your embrace
every time…

Wine.

It’s morning and
the alcohol in my breath
tells a history
of poverty and abuse.

My mother would never share
a glass of wine with me
even at my age.

Of the things she has passed down to me
Our family history is one she bottles
and pours carefully
for the things that remain in rehab.

Wife-beater.

They say all the wife beaters
stop by the bars on their way home
with their vests and guarded masculinity.

He beat the wine from her body
watching it pour as if she bled for two
her and her unborn child.

There…

I blame my father

for lost footprints

in the desert —

He left an empty well

buried underneath the sand.

And I blame my mother

for not knowing that

daughters, like sons,

need their fathers too

— for taking that cup

away from me.

I can’t find love in this deep well

I will always be a wanderer

in my own body trying to find him

trying to accept a part of me that knows

only emptiness.

This is a poem based on the writing prompt by Priyanka Srivastava and the team at Literary Impulse (Shabd Aaweg)publication, for National Poetry…

This month last year I wrote the first Without Borders Newsletter.

We only had a few writers and followers at the time but with a shared goal. To build a community of writers who are not afraid to push their own boundaries, explore past their borders and expand their ideas of what it means to be an immigrant, a traveler and a global citizen.

When asked what they write about and why they are interested in writing for Without Borders, some of our writers shared;

1. The power you have as a writer

Anytime you put pen to paper you have the capacity to change someone else’s perspective and build your own. You have the power to bring healing at a time when it seems we can’t escape our own suffering but face it head on. While we are fighting the pandemic with the Covid vaccine, we are also battling loss, grief, isolation, loneliness, and social disruption. There is more healing that we need to do even when Covid is behind us. …

I have been obsessed with journals and planners lately. I can’t seem to get anything done when it is not hand-written in my journal or planner. I keep two Journals, a planner, and the notes app on my iPhone.

I have to admit that I have been paying more attention to journals and how the practice of journaling can increase your levels of focus and help reduce anxiety. Now, I can’t say that this is a proven fact but it is a true observation of my own life. I am less anxious when my mind is not constantly thinking about…

We are heading towards the last week of February and for us it is an exciting time as we begin the work of putting together the second issue of the Without Borders Magazine due to be released late March.

The first time we went about creating a magazine, we had no idea where to start. However, our creative process was driven by the amazing stories, poems, and experiences shared by our community of writers. If you dowloaded, purchase or read our first issue of the Without Borders Magazine then you know this to be true: Every design element or visual…