Stained

Stained,
With your memories,
this road…
Just like the period stain
I left on your sheet,
that went right through the mattress.

So powerful, that stain,
When I look at it, I feel
the passion we had that night.

So tough, that stain,
we took turns washing it-
me, in the early hours of morning
just before I left your house,
and you, when the evening set in,
just after you’d come back home.

It still left
a pale yellow shade
with a dark brown lining,
behind.
On your lavender sheet.

I am at your place again,
trying to write a requiem
for lost love,
in my mind.

At the same time, wanting
to etch it across all the turns and corners
and slides
of your body,
just one more time.

My heart cries out poetry,
My eyes bleed poetry,

To seduce you,
To consume you,
To dissolve you,
In me,
just one more time.

And that mattress is still there,
With no sheet on it,
Bare
Naked
It stares back at me,
And I see,
Throbbing,
Palpitating,
Pulsating,
Perspiring,
Intoxicated- the blood stain-

My period stain
That I left
On your sheet.

Written by: Ayushi Rawat

Ayushi is chai addict who loves as much, to devour poetry. She creates and experiments with teaching aids for children that question constructions and tries to re-invent learning through their perspectives. she had graduated from Fergusson College, Poona in Literature and is currently pursuing her M.A. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Read her other writings here.