Maitreyee B Chowdhury
Three Naked Men
Bangalore Cantonment staircase
one evening,
and three half naked men
behind the stairs.
In the shadows, a syringe
nakedness,
alone
dead
alert
kind.
One of them looked through me,
I stood naked,
in that gaze-
just, not like them.
Unrealistic but vulnerable,
more dead somehow.
I found the strength
to look away,
before the kind man smiled.
The world erupted into a thousand fireflies,
as I squeezed my eyes
and rinsed my tongue-
a desert unveiled
a city revealed
a sleepless shift-
some thirst, a prayer
and memory collided.
My moment: a dawn,
I am now, the king without clothes
that no one knew about.