Anindita Sarkar - Can we sleep in peace?
Anindita Sarkar is a Research Scholar from
India. She is pursuing her M.Phil degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her
works have recently appeared in Indolent Books, Ariel Chart Magazine, Otoliths,
Writing in a woman’s voice, Scars Publication among others.
Can we sleep in peace?
I
try to sleep
oscillating
on the bed
trying
to swallow air, to breathe
my
house breathes relatively better
the
windows flare and recede
in
an impeccable rhythm.
Yes,
you guess me right
I am
not White
I’m
a triggered gust of wind,
a
jeopardized black woman
abandoned
by a husband
for
not being modelesque.
My
dreams are whitewashed
so
are the tell-tale scars on my skin
I
possess no voice to reclaim
my
diary nose-bleeds with insecurities.
But
this is how I was raised
to
wrap the thorns into a tube
and
seal it like a folded leaf,
Yes,
to admire the white sobriety
and
savour their abbreviated slurs
“You
are a rare orchid, vividly flowering”,
a buzzword for my mother,
she
taught me to tread
on
the asphalted sidewalk
frequented
by my ancestors,
the
highways are floored by the Whites,
so I
sleep with a smile
on
my harrowed fallow face
fantasizing
about the bluest eyes.