Poetry by Anureet Watta

they/them Anureet Watta

There wasn’t always the word to fill our mouths with

only a prison of pretense.

No keening friends with solemn speeches,

No handcuffs to tame an apparition,

just longing, plump and ready to wound.

That’s what we barter - a tooth, a shadow - only for our hearts to stay full.

And I’ll be damned if all I do is long anymore.

I no longer wish,

I only want,

which is to eat everything that glows to the rind.

But

time is running out and there’s so much left for me to do,

I can’t keep explaining the plurality of my hands.

Instead I’ll tell you about the time,

I sizzle a kebab until the lamb walks free

the part where I buy a genuine laugh, and never hide,

where I overwhelm, and don’t explode.

Forgive me,

my arrival has disrupted your sentence.

gender is such a hoax, isn’t it?

Anureet Watta (they/them) is a poet based in New Delhi. They have been previously published in the Bombay Review, Esthesia Magazin, Ghost Heart Literary Journal, GAYSI and other publications. They currently head Forbidden Verses, an artists' organization to promote local artists and politicize conversations around art in New Delhi. They may be found on Instagram as @alooreet.