Lunar Cycles
i.
i was born in the capital of the country
and grew used to gazes
ii.
madras found me shoving my hands in the pockets of my too-short shorts
or so the aunties and teachers and friends’ mothers thought
got pulled aside one sunny afternoon (but then most afternoons were sunny)
when i was sitting by the library (the safest spot on the campus)
my physics teacher asked my why i wasn’t wearing shorts
under my uniformed regulation skirt and wasn’t i sending the boys
the wrong idea, somehow?
madras found me laughing in the face of my modern-day medusa
asking her whether she thought boys staring up my skirt might
already have completely the wrong idea
through no encouragement of my own through no intention of mine
medusa and i called an uneasy truce after that but i could feel her s...