Kala Ramesh

Prison

one card leans on the other until the hand wavers

        he says our marriage
        will work if the ‘s’ in she
        remains silent
        where would the moon be
        without the sun

                my mother speaks
                of a coming together
                of Shiva and Parvathi
                she bows to that one
                with hands in namaste

                       genderqueer
                       him, her, s/he
                       or they —
                       my mind cluttered
                       with stuck-on labels

         your voice sings even without lyrics champa blossom

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First published in Witness: Poetry of Dissent from the Margins’ Print Edition, India, February 2021.

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About the Author 

Kala Ramesh is a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. Her 2017 book Beyond the Horizon Beyond was awarded a Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize Certificate.