AT THE SINK U LEFT ME CUZ IT WAS D-DAY AT THE TABLE OR IT WAS TAKE-OUT by Saanvi Bishnoi

I then let out a confession and you hear thee my words don’t close your eyes /

come closer and I’ll seal the gaping mouse’s orifice / but you instead dreamt of a

carousel inside your pants.

The thick custard words but they / yelled out hey u wanted a prayer but you were a

beggar r u ashamed / did u call the police last night becuz i was half-nude, like, fully

out there in the yard so like answer back / the telephone like a buzzer a swarm nest

and the nettles / a nest I made for us

I had another drink and

sorry

I left a scar and the blood mixed with your milk now it’s pink / till death do us part

but like i dont rlly know u that well so. / You came back from the holiday and wore

your crown but you didn’t have what it takes to be a King. You were / squeaky and

the finger never really moved but you sat there back straight / knees scraped /

split-lipped and you begged for antiseptic instead I gave you kisses so please

come back for dinner. / ik u don’t really like chicken thighs but i was like fuck it let’s

do it / the confession

was just a little bandage on a headless body

but

you were a statue some parts copper-green others feces. You didn’t really have a

face so I just stood there with my carving knife because the red lipstick you

bought me for my birthday was actually quite nice. So thank you / sometimes i feel

like a

bird

in a tree but like it’s a bushfire so i know im

gonna die like it scares the shit out of me, but / the grill was hot the fryer was hot

the stove was hot and the beggar’s mouth was full of coins but that’s just a story

everything is just to make you look bad.

Can you please / just eat your food?

Saanvi Bishnoi is a writer who composes in an experimental and transgressive lineage. Her works present the poem as not fixed in traditional form but highly transferable and malleable in their genre-hybridity, especially across prose and essays. Her work is published in Cordite Poetry Review and is forthcoming in Eunoia Review. You can find her on Instagram at @sansbunnn.