It was autumn,
Central Calcutta, everyone's in joy -
Walking through thick-hurdled crowd,
In the corner, I saw you,
Tall, in a blue kurta and jeans.

Burning flames of love,
Serenity had a halo around you ;
With hair falling on the side of the neck,
Like those intellectuals, walking through the University doors.

You saw me, gazing.
You smiled. I froze into speechlessness -
Nearness made me tingle with your thoughts,
Locked in my skin, your head on my chest.

But, to speak it in words -
I lack energy for so.
I've been hidden behind in coverage ;
To speak my mind, within this dense cacophony -
I'll be left unheard, because I'm different.

Just waved at you,
You ignored me.
You walked to the other side of the street.
Turning back, you smiled again -
Now bitterness wrapping you,
People pushed me away.
I got lost, we are now
nothing but just two delusional ghosts.

Every night, I write this story on a torn paper -
The wind blows faster down my lane,
In the afternoon, when I walk through that corridor,
where you smoke a cigarette and sip tea -
I see you, gazing at me.
Both speechless, numb with love.

So, to analyze us,
are we insane?
Do our veins push more blood than theirs?
The normalised ones, the right ones?
To be born a female, in a prejudice torn society,
To love each other as women -
Have they haunted them?
Have they hurt them?
Have they mingled their privacy?
So, why are they making this barrier between us?

It's another bright day,
The university is lit in smiling faces,
Yet again, I see you, there at the corridor -
You walked up. You held me.
You said it's too much.
"You are mine," you whispered in our vernaculars.
As I intertwined into your lips, I felt it.
It's love, but more beautiful,
More aesthetic, than they could see.

                           - Anurima Mukherjee

P.S. - Today marks the end of the Pride Month. But, every day is a day of Pride. As a pansexual myself, I'm very much aware of the prejudices against the queer community. It's terrible.
This poem is the most "pansexual" poem I've ever written.

Wasn't willing to update but jaggy_sippy won't spare me, if I didn't.