Three Poems by Amrita Valan

 

Blue Blood   

 

I hate the term emerging poet

At times

I wonder if I should carry the shell

Remains of pupa

Pleading for respect.

 

I have not travelled the world

You may think I am ignorant.

 

I wish to show you one day

How I collapse in the

Dirt, breadcrumbs of sloppy

Children’s dinner

On which red ants feast.

 

I fall to sleep dreaming

Of writing.

 

I am on a magic bicycle that

Can carry all of us safely 

across the workaday world

To subtle dimensions

That only a poet

Feels in her veins.

 

I reach into my heart

For fresh blood

But readers want

Blue, deoxygenated dreams

Famished empty streams.

 

The daily fights

Cobwebs on

My soul,

Scrubbing on broken knees

That I leave behind.

 

The Leer

 

I fear sympathy

But your

Misplaced empathy

 

Murders my soul.

 

What am I supposed to

Feel?

Gratitude?

Loyalty?

 

It boils down to inferiority

Condescension

And charity.

 

I want to

Meet my equal

 

I don’t want

That full bodied

Dazzling smile

 

That cheers.

 

It reeks of

 

Sly intimacy

 

A leer.

 

You are going to

Sort me out.

 

No.

I am not

Your wardrobe.

 

I will not be

Colour coordinated

 

And shelved seasonally.

 

It Girl, for Real.

 

I am the dark

I am the light

I give up.

I still

Got some fight.

 

I have the right.

To know my rights.

 

Don’t Judge

Don’t fudge

The issues

Smudge my

Cheap mascara in

Your expensive

Scented tissues.

 

I am not here 

To scale

Your social ladder

Your reference points

Make me sadder.

 

No soul

Should be

Smothered.

 

I am It.

I got grit.

 

The real thing.

This bird will fly

Her mangled wings.

 

Amrita Valan is a writer based in Bangalore, India and has a master’s degree in English literature.

Her poems and short stories have been published in more than a dozen anthologies and online journals such as Café Lit, Café Dissensus, ImpSpired, Spillwords, The Crossroads, Oddball Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, Poetry and Places, Wink, Modern Literature, Portland Metrozine, The Indian Periodical, The Writers Club and Potato Soup Journal and most recently Short Story Town. She is also awaiting publication in a few more anthologies and online literary zines.