Poems by Alokabho Pal

My Temporal Skin

 

I wear my skin in loose folds of oversized shirts and jeans

I wear it like skin and bones and brown flesh tones

I wear it like a man but I am not

I wear it like a boy but I am not

No, not a woman either,

No, not a girl ~

Somewhere in between, somewhere lost;

Cotton and linens and leathers and wools

Getting lost in clothing rules

Break and tear and loudly scream —

My flesh is my temporal skin.

 

 

To All the Boys I’ve ever Loved

 

To all the boys I’ve ever loved,

On anonymous chatrooms, webcams and Snapchat;

To the love, lust and the pleasure;

To the photos we exchanged.

Fingers clutching my hard cock —

Deep breaths, moaning, stroking, cumming.

To the dry cum encrusted on my t-shirt…

To the discovery and the shame;

I found myself in breathless sighs

I found myself in stranger’s eyes

We were headless torsos and shadowy reflections

Hiding, lying, denying___.

If not our faces, our bodies were free,

But once night fell

There were no more stories to tell.

 

Skins

 

I erased myself with a dried up wet wipe

I rubbed and rubbed till I was sore and clean

Take off my skin and hide it in my bag

Sweet cherry lips and rainbow eyes

I wear 2 skins but one doesn’t fit quite right

I live two lives but one doesn’t feel quite right

But that’s alright, that’s okay,

I was once told that our lives are supposed to be this way…

 

Notes of queerness

 

I write my queerness with my walk

I write my queerness with the way I talk

I write my queerness with my clothes

I write my queerness with my words

I write it down in tiny little notes.

 

 

Alokabho is a postgraduate student of English literature in Jadavpur University. His interests include Queer studies and media studies. He has worked with Gaysi Magazine, Sappho for Equality, Sanhita and is currently working with The Lens.