I'm reading your story
scrawled across your body
in crumpled skin,
pouches of clotted blood,
streams of blue pulsating through your throbbing veins;
Those glazed eyes,
hawk-like and helpless at the same time,
the witch-like nose,
sharp and hooked,
with a toothless grin
and jutting chin
Tell the tale of lost love, self deception and hubris...
A flat chest sagging with leftover stumps of proud full breasts,
stray white strands masquerading as hair,
skin crinkling like new silk between my fingers,
Talk of a rich life.
While my eyes drown in the pathos
of your rotting age,
tubes and wires all around you,
Men and women throng the hospital to cluck their tongue in pity
and watch your shrinking life with repulse.
Stripped of the power of youth,
You lie vanquished by old age.
Author Bio:
Namitha Varma is a media professional based in Bengaluru, India. She is a voracious reader, a music enthusiast and an opinionated social observer. Her works have been previously published in Sahitya Akademi’s journal Indian Literature (May/June 2014), eFiction India (various issues), Coffee Shop Poems, Flash Fiction Magazine, Hackwriters, and A Little Poetry. Her poem has been read out on NPR Radio as part of the National Poetry Month, via #TMMPoetry. She can be reached on twitter via @namithavr.
scrawled across your body
in crumpled skin,
pouches of clotted blood,
streams of blue pulsating through your throbbing veins;
Those glazed eyes,
hawk-like and helpless at the same time,
the witch-like nose,
sharp and hooked,
with a toothless grin
and jutting chin
Tell the tale of lost love, self deception and hubris...
A flat chest sagging with leftover stumps of proud full breasts,
stray white strands masquerading as hair,
skin crinkling like new silk between my fingers,
Talk of a rich life.
While my eyes drown in the pathos
of your rotting age,
tubes and wires all around you,
Men and women throng the hospital to cluck their tongue in pity
and watch your shrinking life with repulse.
Stripped of the power of youth,
You lie vanquished by old age.
Author Bio:
Namitha Varma is a media professional based in Bengaluru, India. She is a voracious reader, a music enthusiast and an opinionated social observer. Her works have been previously published in Sahitya Akademi’s journal Indian Literature (May/June 2014), eFiction India (various issues), Coffee Shop Poems, Flash Fiction Magazine, Hackwriters, and A Little Poetry. Her poem has been read out on NPR Radio as part of the National Poetry Month, via #TMMPoetry. She can be reached on twitter via @namithavr.
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