ArunDitha (b. 1988)

SELECTED POEMS

My Body is a Monster

my body is a mon$ter built from disas$ociation/hand from 
else/where stitched onto fore/arm/ clavicle buried so deep 
in my ribs/it scrambles to recall the sharp edge 
of its length/feathered wing protruding off sylphlike shoulder

blade$ freakily flapping like caged animals/legs as 
mermaid tail/gifted from a deep sea creature while sleep 
opened celestial gate$/brain crawling out the shell 
of my head/once i woke up and my voice was no longer 
my own/chords twisted/ropes of the collective 
consciousness/screaming the name of this relentle$s orchestra

am i effigy/or doorway/$tarry pieces or glitter bomb/even 
my mother couldn't see the grotesque shapes dancing 
underneath the $hine/even my corneas don’t remember 
the edge$ of my own name/alphabets turned away from 
each other like face$ in the night/i was four 
when i decided to displace them from within my 
borders/dripping with dark nectar 
from my skin/$yllables of betrayal/foreign 
flavours on a white/washed tongue

but what is foreign/my country 
is an imperial tax haven/what is foreign/my body a mon$ter 
composed of imported parts/the lineages of $cattered 
continents/fractured pieces which somehow make a whole

my body is a monster/this island of spiky gla$$y things/dark 
things shift in the depths/we shove them down again/arrange 
a smiling parade of paid endor$ements/sing another
commission $ong/milk this $ilky machine so it makes more 
parts/call another medium to perform exorcisms for $tructure$ 
whose blackened roots require more than magic/oh but 

we are used to monsters here

by ArunDitha
from rib/cage: ALLTHETIME 01 (2025)

 

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