For Khushi Kaul

Plagiarized Ashes:

Take my words…

Just take them

But before you do 

I want you to drown yourself 

With them 

Into the sea of love

From where they come

So that you can easily unravel them 

And penetrate into the deep charred corners

Of my existence 

Razing them out like the sin of Cain 

Can you not taste the hard leatherback burn

The whiplash of my imagination

As verse by verse...line by line

Within the hierarchy of this crime

I intertwine you between the soft velvet folds of subtext

And the razor fine edge of an emotion

The syllables smoldering under the dark garter belt of language 

That give shape and form to their mysterious allure 

Beyond flesh and bone 

For I stand here...before you 

Utterly denuded...

And molested...

With just the sweet taboo of my bare naked words

With just the sweet taboo of my bare naked words

Which you have already claimed

And still my poetry you shall never have

I fed it to the ravaging hell of my soul

A long time ago 

Only to watch it resurface 

Upon the bone white of my canvas 

As plagiarized ashes

    ...eternally purified

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