The boy shivered when I kissed him,
He said love does not kill
Death does
And death comes in many ways.
That night was his last on god-swollen foot,
He was burnt
By his own father.
My mother never hated me
Until that night
When she heard my little secret,
That
I am in love
With a boy.
My mother could not bear
Fire around her son,
So she sent me into the cold nights
And spilt these words into my heart:
“You have served me indignities –
never come back.”
The statement sounds, to me like an epitaph.
Now, I am here among crickets
In the wilderness
Thinking of why love only kills a poor boy
Whom they could not accept in the society.
