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Poem: Straining at the Seams

By: Priya Anand

Mother

Flip-flops slap the muddy ground
Stained by liquids best left unanalysed
A gawkish stance on reed thin legs
A faded floral print that touches scabby knees
Eyes that have long seen and only begun
To comprehend the stink and the miasma

She stands outside a petty shop
Wooden benches straining under the weight of
Libidinous men divesting her of cover
Weighing her pubescent assets
As if she were a cattle to be bought
Tumescent fingers touch hers
Sniggers as she rears backs violently
Her hurried departure marked by raucous laughter
Its icy fingers stroking her back

Her dying mother eyes the door
Her cadaverous frame too small to
Contain the dread that subsides as
A thin beam of light heralds her arrival
Panic has passed and will visit again tomorrow
Till then in their shanty cocoon
A lull in the cataract that descends
A countdown to the day
She will leave and never return

 

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Priya Anand is Bangalore based and a Development Consultant who works on women and livelihood issues. She recently started writing and some of her work has been published in Writers Ezine, Bangalore Review and Spark. She is yet to discover her genre, but is having great fun finding it.

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