Wormy Rose

Can you feel me, my love?

…

the ponderous mass of my lungs

hold back my breath

and hefty heart bounces clumsily

midst the cumbersome veins

intertwined with the bulky bones

…

my half-closed eyes

covering the dislocated eyeballs

and cracked lenses

with creases on the brows

under the slit opened forehead

…

the gametes of the rotten worm

trekking in my mouth

make my breath denser

than the opaque yellow phlegm

of my clogged nose

…

the dilating wax of my left ear

leaks through the right

infesting my pillow with

green yellow red white

oozed mucus and toadstool

…

Can you feel me, my love?

My basal ganglia is engraved,

With serrated deception and jagged hoax.

You have come to see me with a bouquet of rose,

So many fruits, apples, berries and mangoes,

You were the worm and I, a sick rose,

Can you heal me, my love?

You can’t feel me though!

Bio-Note

I, Sanjana Srivastava, am M.A (English) from St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College, University of Calcutta. I am pursuing B.Ed from Adamas University and Certificate Course in Linguistics from Jadavpur University. I have presented papers in international and national seminars and webinars. My papers and poems have been published nationally and internationally in anthologies, e-magazines and journals. I wish to pursue my doctoral research in the discipline of Gender Studies and Body Politics. The link to my Facebook account is https://www.facebook.com/sanjana.srivastava.7927.