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This poem touches on trauma, betrayal, and emotional wounds.
Aporia publishes imaginative writing. The voices in our contributors' work are literary personae, and should not be read as statements about the writer's own life.
See You Naked
A Hunger to see you naked
No. No. No not the stripping of the clothes
but the second skin you always wore,
the second skin you wore to protect that wounded child
those faded lines yet dominating the back of your mind,
breathtaking yet haunting the first skin
the aftermarks of being betrayed
A desperate wish to see your naked love dripping from those cracked lines
those faded yet merciless memories that still breathes with you and in you,
A Hunger to pour my whole heart into those cracked lines
and see the whole naked you
A Hunger to taste the salt, dripping one after another from your eyes
No. No. No not that salt
but the ash, the ash of being wounded, shown in the form of salt,
the afterburn of faded memories
Oh the hunger, Oh the hunger, the hunger for you to see my hunger
and my hunger to see the hunger of yours for love, for love, for love
to touch those trembling cold hands with the touch of love that feels gentler this time to you
and then? Then.
Then you remove those clothes and let me see the whole naked you
and then? Then I'll say
O Jan e jaan dono Jahan Meri baho mein a Bhool jaa
Knot
In another universe let's not be the one who feels like home
the soul who walks beside me
no, not even a nameless traveler
sitting beside me in the bus, barely touching and gone.
Among these billion faces without stories
wish the lines
the lines our fate drew for us to cross
wish they never had the courage to knot
let's not even by chance enjoy the same view
no, not even the accidental unknown glances in the crowded places
no, not even feeling of cold yet soft touch of the railing you hold
no, not even the same sky
let's even forget the 26 alphabets we both know
remind me the initial of the name the world gave you, the syllable of your identity, the soul of alphabet that holds your soul
let's return to the dust without even knowing of each other's existence
just two souls
untouched, unwritten, unremembered.
And Me? Abandoned
Nobody came to my funeral
no not even the tears
not even the tears from my eyes, neither rolling nor wetting my ears
when he inserts the pain in my veins by ripping the soul, buried deep.
no not even the tears of mine came
and me? abandoned
no not even my disappointed self
who buried me years ago
no not even the angels
who ask questions
they never even glance at my body
averted gaze, passed, vanished
and me? abandoned
no not even the mud
not even the mud came to my funeral
didn't bury me in herself,
didn't even touch my flesh
didn't even write its history with the alphabets of me
and me? abandoned.
no not even the insects
not even the insects licked my flesh
didn't even pass near me
and me? abandoned
no not even the abstract of immortal
not even the immortal abstract wrapped its white layer over me
and me? abandoned.
