Reena Prasad
The Dark Fugue comes up like bile
when the Irate Child calls
They meet in secret in sleeper cells
The Irate Child welds memories
plucking them out of nostrils, from restless eyeballs
and from swallowed salt
The Dark Fugue’s weapon is a roller dipped in black
They duel on a white platform
The faster the Irate Child moves her lips,
the more tar Dark Fugue throws up
I mine the killing field with starch, sugar and coffee
Gunpowder to blast away the Fugue
The Irate Child pouts and stabs me hard
The Fugue floats in through the wound
I lie in bed and bleed like mad
Reena Prasad is a poet/writer from India, currently living in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). Her poems have been published in several anthologies and journals, including The Copperfield Review, First Literary Review-East, Angle Journal, Poetry Quarterly, and Lakeview International Journal. She is also the Destiny Poets UK’s Poet of the Year for 2014 and one of the editors of The Significant Anthology, released in July 2015.