I Asked Pain Its Address,
Materialized by Ashish Kumar Singh on Monday, March 20th 2023.
and pointing to my left elbow it says, here and I remember my childhood like a bulb suddenly aglow and the fall I had from a tree. It was summer and because grandmother said how sweet the guavas taste, I thought to surprise her with one. But you do not live there any longer, I say rubbing the spot. Here, the pain says and points to my leg like a child unsure of where the Arctic might be on a map. I look down at my thin legs and say, no no I haven’t run a marathon since my graduation. Still, it persists. Oh you mean my knees and I explain how I stopped praying to both gods and men a while back and pain looks at me, now annoyed. I apologize and turn to leave, the sun too harsh on my skin. Here, it says and when I look back, pain points a finger at my heart. I laugh and say, I’m happy and all it does is shake its head and say, no, but that’s where I will be.
Ashish Kumar Singh (he/him) is a queer poet from India with a Master’s degree in English Literature. His works have appeared- or are forthcoming- in The Bombay Literary Magazine, Chestnut Review, Fourteen Poems, Trampset, Lucky Jefferson, Mason Jar Press, Foglifter, Banshee, Channel Magazine and elsewhere. He serves as an editorial assistant at Visual Verse, poetry editor at Indigo Literary Journal and reads for ANMLY.
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