After hours in train
Twisting and turning
Through endless tracks
The country of God
Welcomes me with
Precipitation and sweaty hugs
Love-high shivering grandparents
In a hot ancient house
Surrounded by remnants
Of Dad's childhood.
I share something divine.
I am home, yet not mine

It will soon be morning
Amma walks the backyard
Collecting flowers
The best for the Goddess
Who does nothing but sit
At her ivory throne
Sweets and diyas around
Her face with a pasted smile
I have so wished to wipe out.

Appa's snore shake the walls
I imagine his moustache
Shivering under the onslaught
Before he's off to the stores
He would want his breakfast
With Anna on his right side
Telling Appa all about school
And his stagnant progress
While Appa nods and laughs.

And after they would leave
I will then open my books
Where wonders of world hide...
Till then, I make breakfast.

Below an unsatisfied stomach,
Between tired legs,
I hold your future.
That which you conceal
and exploit as pleasure
That which you call
a Woman's Bane,
I claim it back.
I celebrate - not in victory,
But in vengeance.

The day
undated,
The moment
unannounced,
The experience
unexpected.

Helplessness.

Greetings and thank you for coming,
I'm so grateful for your generosity, in
Fulfilling my need – How charitable.
Please take a seat, please be comfortable.

Kindly ignore the mess and bowing parents,
Adorable, but they are not significant.
Prime are you, with your gaze discern
me, a superwoman, I cook, clean and earn.

I might look fiery but I'm sober and calm.
Feeble, delicate, no threat, no harm.
And oh so fertile! I can bear generations,
But lack a suitable man, and marriage decorations.

So you smile and you nod, should I say it's a Yes?
Oh please, be kind, do not digress.
You are the ones I've been waiting to serve,
I'm just a woman, nothing else to live for.

Soft, round with delicate patterns
You dance to my tunes
But beyond my sultry rules.
Hot and spicy - my tongue burns
As it takes you in deep
Each flavour separated, variegated
On my flattened leaf.
Even moments later
I want to taste again.

In your anger
you opened your heart.
I saw the picture
you painted of me.
What baseness!
Only recognizable point
is the fullness
of my lips that look
freshly invaded.

Some things never
change, though feelings do.

Feelings change.
Every lub-dub that
disturbs the surface
Shrieks at me - you liar!
You two-faced *****,
Begone! Even Eros dare not
let you be loved again.

A tear or two wash down
the wounds fresh on flesh
Surfacing charred waste
of what you once cherished in me.