Submissions by shreysalwan

I am a river flowing against its course,
my mother tries to dam me,
compares me to sacred texts,
to a lamp that’s lost its oil,
says I am breaking her,
that she could never face the world
with a son like me,
unthinkable, unimaginable,
every son before or after me
is soaked in my shame.

I fill her eyes
with tears corrosive as acid,
her heart just a wound
screaming for my normalcy.
But I am always too genuine,
frightening in the way I love men,
unapologetic and vulnerable.

She tells me that no god...

Dear Ma,

Am I a stranger now?

Or has the stranger always been me?

We come from the same roots,

Yet I feel like a leaf about to detach,

Floating on a breeze you don't recognize.

Desire is not a sin—

After years of loving in a silence

That even words cannot penetrate,

I find myself sitting alone

At the foot of your bed,

Staring at the idols of gods you pray to.

Your hands, laden with years and prayers,

Fold into devotion for gods

Who never had...

Do you remember the day I came out?

Thankful for the silence that broke,

Do you remember your first secret?

The hidden treasure box in your young heart?

You say I look nothing like you now,

I fear I look nothing like you now.

Traditional son turned eclipse.

How to wear your mother's bindi?

I go to my room to touch that tiny red dot,

somewhere no one can find me.

I must wear it like you wear disbelief on your face.

Your mother is a woman,

And women like her, are...