Mingle
Sreyasi Sen Gupta
Masters in English Literature
University of Calcutta
Calcutta
Black heads
egg heads
perfectly round heads
perfectly perfect heads
flashing eyes and nails
groomed and ungroomed
bodies at rest tending to be bodies
in motion
a sea of small talk
creeping, creeping
like untended mushrooms
growing roots
and fangs.
I stand in their midst
looking unapproachable
a sequestered stag
arrow to the face
pinning my tongue to the roof my mouth
a surrealist memento mori
basking
in the otherness of others, scooping
mine into my palms
balling my hands into fists, I'll
shake your hand and
smear some on your face
and let you do
the same
to me.