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Blue Marble Review

Literary Journal for Young Writers

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anesthesia

By Suhanee Mitragotri

ma’s hands run through thick black keratin,
each stroke bleeding coconut oil for my

parched scalp to sip. i listen to the beautiful
melody of ma’s country, rhythms born from

cracked sugarcane & turmeric paste, tunes
beaten out of hollow wood & fractured

fingers, & words hurled as tongues strike soft
teeth. marathi letters drip like molasses from my

parents’ lips, but broken marathi consonants crumble
from mine. i glance at their product in a shattered

mirror.

[brown girl can’t speak brown words?]
i’ve taken a beautiful culture and dirtied it in

my palms. tears tumble from long eyelashes, each
drop stained mahogany from cacao eyes. each

utterance another disgrace to my lineage. yellow
t-shirt & jean shorts expose skin. each seam

is stitched to epidermis & tugging thread dyes
fingernails scarlet. wearing brown flesh like a

deer hide, there is a different girl underneath.
her blood runs red like ma and pa, her skin a

rustic blend of earthen hues like ma and pa.
but her brain runs blue

& bleeds of society’s anesthesia.

 

Suhanee is a seventeen-year-old living in Massachusetts. She has a strong passion for writing and dancing. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her dog and cat, as well as laughing with her sister.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: Issue Eighteen

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