PoetryByAarvi

This poem is a melancholy reflection on the vanishing of cultural heritage through the loss of the mother tongue, Gujarati. The language barrier creates practical, heartbreaking losses. The author cannot pass down recipes because a key herb has “no English name”. It is impossible to share the prayers and the history with a new generation. […]

This poem is a sharp critique of cultural appropriation that recounts the pain of having one’s traditions mocked, only to see them later commodified. The author was made fun of for oiling her hair with coconut oil. This same oil is now a trendy beauty product. The reverence of “Namaste” has become a sound whispered

This poem is an emotional breakdown of the relentless, commercialized pressure of beauty standards. The voice is overwhelmed, asking what kind of “pretty” is required: “Boy pretty? / Girl pretty? / Frog pretty?”. The world demands constant consumption and transformation, causing the speaker to feel either “still too much, / still not enough”. The counter-argument

A piece of searing political satire, this poem exposes the moral blindness of the global 1%. The wealthy are imagined planning their next vacation, discussing destinations from their private jets. The poem then creates a dark, inverse itinerary of the world’s greatest humanitarian crises. The “vacation spots” are war-torn places like Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, and

This poem uses a twenty-dollar bill as a startling metaphor for economic inequality and human value. The first scene shows a billionaire losing a twenty, which is to him “less than dust in a room of gold”. He doesn’t even notice the loss. The scene shifts dramatically to those for whom the twenty dollars holds

This poem is a defiant mathematical dismantling of censorship. It contrasts the immense number of words in the dictionary and the millions of books published annually against the 6,870 books banned this year. The author acknowledges this small number of banned books is still “6870 more” than what should ever be allowed. The underlying emotion

A raw, visceral portrayal of the body’s reaction to a breakup. The pain is not a sharp, clean cut, but a “dagger twisting its way” through memories, dragging pieces of laughter and promise with it. “I love you” echoes against the blade, turning every affection into an ache. The bleeding is quiet and internal, flowing

This poem explores the emotional paralysis of seeing a loved one in pain but being unable to intervene. The speaker observes the person “fading away,” their eyes dull, their smile a fragile, “stitched-together thing”. They see the hidden evidence of self-harm, how wrists hide “beneath cotton and fear”. Knowing that “tired words” like “You’re strong”

This poem is a bitter, honest critique of the American promise of education. The persona of the “college graduate” immediately frames their diploma not with pride, but as a title “sealed with debt and expectation”. The virtuous rhetoric of education is buried under the fine print of student loans. The financial trap is exposed after

This poem captures the crushing weight of expectation felt by a child of immigrants. The speaker’s life was prescribed from birth: “doctor, engineer, or lawyer”. This was the path to honor the parents who “crossed oceans” so their child might not just survive, but thrive. The climax is a devastating round of rejections from the