I Will Dedicate My First Book to You

~ because you could not break me ~

“Mortal Coils” Farida Haque

Stripped

Ripped

Rolled in muck

A dead crow fastened

To each nipple

And the household

Tried not to look.

Every morning

You tied me to torment

Then set me loose on the day,

A crazed dragonfly.

That makes you a god, does it?

Neither coming nor going

Forever I stood on thresholds

Pleading for a chit.

“Approved.” It read.

Let her have disfigurements

Broken nose

Crooked smile.

Let her draw her own water.

“Exemption.” From fractals.

“Allowed.” Fascination at fugues.

“Granted.”

Leave to dream and drift.

Folios from your

Book of edicts still

Blind, deafen, smother, sadden.

“Forbidden.” it said, the chit.