Cassandra Baliga

Cassandra Baliga is a graduate of Purdue University Fort Wayne with a B.A. in English. She’s had work previously appear in ANGLES, The Lucky Jefferson, Sad Girls Club and Cold Mountain Review. She is also a two-time winner of the DeKalb Snowbound Writer’s Poetry Contest.

When Love is Like

a cult for two, the leader doesn’t need to wear a robe
or beads. Street clothes, jeans, a ratty t-shirt are suitable.
They don’t have to have slick convictions

that capture the imagination. A smile,
a sad backstory will do.

When you start
to question them, they don’t need
to turn into Jim Jones, sweating
behind a pulpit, calling out
and beating fists.
A few casual half-truths
in the car
the kitchen, wherever,
is fine.

And they don’t need men
posted with machine
guns by the back door
to keep you,
disillusioned,
from bolting.

One pair
of glaring eyes,
the littlest grip
of fingers
on throat
is enough.