Necropsy

Her tender skin sprouts
green shoots
a wreath,
at the foot of tree
she was buried.

On the trunk
her face appeared, a
morphed stump.

The bark, her coffin
split, where demons clawed.

A number, worms out
indelible scars, 452.

Frozen chambers of mortuary
await the next,
a child, a girl, a dalit, a musalman.
A cattle herder.
Or, the silent you, you and you.

 

To the 8 year old Kathua girl, durgged, raped and murdered.

 

mistress of dark nights

I cultivate you
O Moon,
seeding ribbons of light

shredded memories

one more sliver
one last
each night
from the faint glimmer
like a whisper
to a crescent
to an incandescent
disk of dark love.
From a crescent
to a glowing halo
you show off
O Moon
like a mistress

of dark Saturday nights.

Predator

In the mirror she sleeps
eyeing the empty bed
crawling with dreams.
Slithering, cold, distant,
uncovered shadows
caressing her face.

She the lizard,
the chameleon,
the predator
in love with the mirror
changes colours
to cover her dark deeds.