Green rivers
flow through the hollows
by bone cavities each time
I see my desires kissing the
threshold of another doorstep
I spit out a green bile
from my empty stomach of
acid burnt walls each time I
refuse to swallow the sugar
crystals dissolved in the tea
brewing in another kitchen.
I draw close the virtual
green curtains to block my
eyes and ears from the ever
jeering crowd each time they
showcase their fancy lives
that reek of accidental privilege.
I wear green shades,
overly sized to cover also
my cheek bones protruding
a little further out each time
people live their mutually
agreed unequal lives like a
god-planned fairy tale.
I feel green cold temperature,
on my summer dried skin,
green hunger in my belly
laced with layers and layers
of lipids I consumed to evince
my green anguish mixed with
belligerence.
I will die of my own green curse,
biting every unit of my body and
mind; eating away my potentials
like weeds creeping in between
happily grown rows of flowers.
I will be the kill of my own envy.
Mahitha Kasireddi: She is from Hyderabad, India. She had been a writer with online magazines Youth Ki Awaaz. She is a former content director at Campus Diaries. Her poems have been published in literary journals such as GloMag, The Ink Drift Magazine, Unbound Emagazine and the Telegram Magazine by the Talking Books, Delhi and in The New Indian Express. She is the writing finalist of the Campus Diaries 25 Under 25 2016 National Contest. She's certified by the University of Iowa for completing the International Writing Program MOOC on How writers write fiction 2016: Storied Women. Her poems are also to be published in an upcoming anthology by Author Press India called Women Poetess: Within and Beyond Shore