Shloka Shankar- Two Poems

Don’t Tell Me

it’s going to be okay.

Stop thrusting

your belief systems

down my throat.

I’ve seen spite go around,

skip a generation, and then

come back to bite me.

Don’t tell me

"You’re almost there!" 

Lies breathe down my

neck and slice the air. 

I’ve been vaccinated

against hope for too long now –

a word hurled at me

so mindlessly,

accusingly, almost. 

Normal

i didn’t know what to say.

they looked at me

with their expectant faces.

it was time to tell them

the truth. about everything.

the breaches of someone

i was asked to forgive,

turn a blind eye to,

and act like nothing

had happened.

i was still normal. it

happens to girls

all the time. most

don’t get scarred

as much as me.

they call it the past

for a reason. it’s never

meant to be spoken

about.

a red-tape tied

like a noose

around my body.

Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer from India. She loves experimenting with Japanese short-forms such as haiku and haibun, as well as found/remixed poetry. Her work has recently appeared in Of/with, ex-ex lit, Otoliths, Bones, the other bunny, and so on. She is also the founding editor of the literary & arts journal, Sonic Boom.