Fiction & Poetry
To be a gentle / friendship breaker for S. To be // a candle-lit confetti apology for S.
Khusro to Bullah. Ada to Parveen
यह, वह, वो
He, she, they
Lover or Beloved? Woman or Man?
You speak in so many tongues to me as you journey languorously down my body.
Just like on a misty morning,
we both
sit
without a shred of adornment
on these ancient stepwells
and the call of the hummingbirds
offer us sensations,
imagination,
and our innocence
I gargle away the itch in the tonsils accompanying this persistent flu.
He said ‘tender’ today/in such a way/I thought/I’d definitely like him saying/dirty things to me
Waxing my body for the first time last year to have silky skin like the women on Veet’s box but ended up with rashes instead.
“Be yourself, Sarah. Awkward smiles, empty silences, weird laughter, and all. It’s just a part of being human. Loving someone physically is never not awkward. Even if it’s a monogamous relationship. It’s only the comfort of familiarity that makes you think otherwise.”
In my flesh, I must pass
for straight…
But in the digital world,
I can be me.
I smell the judgement
and the disappointment
of my parents as I enter the hall;
it stinks of their silence on my sexuality.
Like some perverted Pavlovian desire,
the wafting smell of fresh soap
that fills up the air in the bath
has my pupils dilate when walking out.