nocturnal, elusive
armour of scales
this is how I grow up
each summer
armour of scales
this is how I grow up
each summer
half an inch taller each monsoon
peeling shallots
plucking scram berries
burrowing into poetry
he fingers my belly
here here here
there is a baby in there
he says, before I get drunk
stagnant red pool burst
into rag clothes
we washed and hung dry
in sunless annexe
on weekend zoo visits
children jeer at macaque
lone white peacock fans out
sardonic flamboyance, this is summer
lone white peacock fans out
sardonic flamboyance, this is summer
“pangolin” he names me
children rabble around
their rectangle teeth flash
I refuse to cow
nocturnal, elusive, undiminished,
armour of scales
this is how I grew up
each summer
Smitha Sehgal is a lawyer-poet from India. She writes poetry in two languages- English and Malayalam. Her poems, fiction and book reviews have featured in contemporary literary publications as Reading Hour, Brown Critique, Kritya, Muse India, The Wagon Magazine, Usawa Literary Review, Parcham, Madras Courier, Water Video Mag, Poetica Review UK, EKL Review, The Criterion, Kalakaumudi, Samakalika Malayalam, Kalapoorna, ShadowKraft, Da Cheung (Korean Literary Journal) and anthologies including 40 Under 40: An Anthology of Post-Globalisation Poetry and Witness -Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent.
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