The man
The untidy one
Hunger his mistress
She likes to watch him suffer, lament
Till he drops at the feet of Mother Pavement.

The wife
Fed up by life
For there's nothing else to feed her
There is no lamp in the city
that can lighten up her Diwali

The child
All bone and skin
clutching on to the alphabet
His coos of learning A, B, C
Drowned by the cacophony of G, D, P

Jack and Sill
Swallowed a Pill
Ran up to the Hill
To kil* a heavy Monster

Jack shot and Missed
Sill shot and Killed
The ugl* heavy Monster

You would stare if I were beautiful

but I offend your eyes
sideways glances emphasise
how afraid you are to look
confront that fear head on
people like me even exist

you sympathise of course
goes without saying, terrible
must be awful to live with

then you check your fingers
and toes, see how perfect they are
and move on, no more ugliness today
to spoil your mood.

Love was never between
    Beautiful Faces
Love was between
     The ugly experiences
Love was never about
     How happy you were
Love was about
     How sad you can be without them
Love shouldn't be
     Judged
Love should be
     Accepted
Love is bound to nothing perfect
Ageless with wrinkles
Love is bound to flaws
And that's the uniqueness
Love varies in different people
In different ways
Of showing " I love you"

Catch a glimpse under the microscope,
perspectives skewed
lens unhinged
liquid light reveals its pathetic placid form.

I whisper to myself
no, I write to myself
cause the clack of keys
is a sound unreadable...

                 "let me be ugly"

This is all there is to me
Boredom, disappointment and debris
This is all I am about
Rudeness, deafness and bad snout
This is all I can provide
A few thousand grave warnings to mind
This I can assure you of
In a week you'll have enough

Hiding in my stomach
where no one can find her
is a beast.

She's a shapeshifter, this monster.
Sometimes her skin is leathery
and membranous,
and wings stretch where her arms used to be.

Sometimes she's a mass of fur and
horns and talons.
Sometimes she's just a fog of darkness
leaking into the world.

But she never lets me forget
that she's there.
When I look into the mirror, I see her.
I'll touch my face
and find it utterly human,
and yet my reflection is a leviathan.
A demon.
She used to terrify me,
make me sweat and shake from fear.

But I've come to accept
that this is what I am.
A monster
whose teeth are stained with blood
of mine and others.
I can never brush them clean.