We are given in to the roughness of the seas,

made to catch its erratic blue between our irises

taught of winds but not of sails

and never the ship.

Shipbuilding isn't a skill we learn since birth.

That is discovery.

The bhagavad-gita is a logline,

its script in the fulcrum of its seed

the tree subverted –

growing through roots under

the surface of a psychic stampede.

For how is it possible for humanity,

to leave the gravity of labor

disconnecting it from fruit?

How can we train our fingers to sow seeds

but not chisel shaft, sheath, sickle, and scythe

for harvest and reap?

…sow seeds and let the rain decide when it came?

balancing what we controlled and what we didn't?

Half of life spent confusing the two.

Most of life spent in controlling that

which we didn't control:

plan on executing the seas, cartographing tides,

calibrating plate shifts,

when our ships withered in its decks, sails, seams,

masts, ‘n bodies?

And when we find the ship

after a long search through

a hard ocean

lying at the side of the shores, it is just the starting point.

To build it…

because it's the only ship we will ever have,

the only ship we will ever know.

Karm –

the labor of our palm lines.

Rochelle Potkar is a prize-winning poet, author, playwright, and screenwriter, based in Mumbai. Her books include Four Degrees of Separation, Paper Asylum - shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2020, Bombay Hangovers (also now in Hindi),

Coins in Rivers – shortlisted at The Wise Owl Literary Award 2025 and longlisted for the Sarojini Naidu Poetry Award 2026. Her latest novels are: The D’Costa Family – a black comedic debut around Goans, greed, and gangsters; and The Fabric Goddesses about three

women around the global fashion and garment industry. Alumna of the prestigious Iowa’s International Writing Program, USA and a Charles Wallace Writer’s fellow, University of Stirling, she was invited four time over as a creative-writing mentor to Iowa’s International Writing Programs - Summer Institute 2019 and Between the Lines 2022, 2023, and 2024. She also teaches poetry at the Himalayan Writing Retreat. @rochellepotkar (X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIN)