I Am a Brown Girl
You shall never know
about a life under vigilance,
bereft of any thrill
stuffed with cascades of compliance,
vaselined lips sealed
under the authority of conservativeness,
the cocoons of curiosity
butchered by the parents
through their dim responses.
The gazes of towering men
often slices my hijab
as I clasp my cleavage
under a blanket of cloaks.
I anticipated an escape
re-etching my flight
in the dead-quiet of the night
I was jolted by a withdrawal.
I feel like an unappeased spirit
searching for myself
in fictional characters and
catalogues of magazines.
Maybe in another life
I will be reborn as the girl wearing lipstick
brazenly sporting in half-naked tunics,
unaware of their downplay,
the column of insecurities
concealed in their burgundy purse
and the litany of condolences
as souvenirs of their ex-boyfriends
they carry as scars.
Not everything can be as easy as a nursery verse
it’s complex to unfurl the secrets of this collateral universe.
Anindita
Sarkar
Anindita Sarkar is a Research Scholar from Jadavpur University India. She resides in Kolkata. Her poems have recently appeared in Indolent Books, Snakeskin Poetry, Scars Publication.
Tags:
Poetry
The relevant poem for these troubled days in America. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTwo lines really stuck out to me. Those in reference to an apparition and the search for one's self. Those lines truly captured an essence of loneliness, misunderstanding, and perhaps feeling outside one's self. If not, utterly lost, always wanting something more, but never ever really to truly obtain it. Well penned.
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