August Issue: Poetry Section

There Is A Desire— Trijita Mukherjee

This body is a cigarette that has not burnt through and through

Streaked with stretch marks and razor cuts,

that comes shaking and falling apart after a beating –

There are documents that have declared these desires diseased

This body is a six-year-old girl eating lunch alone

fat kid who can’t run, or make friends,

falling asleep in class, her skin burning with fever

unable to complete holiday homework

This body has a bengali tongue in a room full of kids who laugh in hindi,

a bully who beats up the kids who do not want to be friends with her,

A body that cannot tell the difference between pleasure and pain-

A monster in her castle, no fabled moonlight through the window

This body has run out of metaphors

Only rage remains, translating into the yearning for

A hand stroking my head, looking at me look at myself in the mirror,

teaching me a language of the self

My hair to be grabbed in a fist, my cheeks slapped, my mouth kissed

My skin bruised red and purple, my flesh bitten

My belly caressed, my breasts held with curiosity –

Desiring violence that does not violate

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