Issue A8 | Poetry | August 2016

Beloved K: A Poem

Aditi Uniyal

Beloved K

I have dug knives in your shoulders

carefully, and they are still trying to

go deeper into your warm flesh-

I am sorry, dear, but I don’t know if

I can remove all of them without

spilling any more blood than what

already runs off the valleys of your back.

I have shot at your belly so you

can never bear any children,

and bullets are all you can digest now-

I am sorry, dear, but I don’t know

how many bullets I can yank out of

your stomach without starving you

of the lead you were forced to feed upon.

I have carved flesh out of your limbs,

trying to eat it raw but my stomach refuses

to process the ache and tenacity of your muscles-

I am sorry, dear, but I don’t know

how many days I can survive without

devouring your identity and vomiting

as I revel and say “You’re mine, mine, mine.”