The sharp wind
grazes and cuts my tongue
/razor-sharp/
like your disagreement towards
how I live my life
your pointy misconceptions
about how it has been traded for various things
to give you little pleasures
as the expense of my happiness

the black metallic taste
of my unspoken truths
sits at the back of my throat
mulling in obsidian time
resting precariously on my forked tongue
slithering and infusing that deep
the sense of fear in the roots of your hair
as they stand the back of your neck

I fear the day when my shredded truth
will drip and taints your soul
your pristine soul,
and your rambunctious gesture of owning everything
will crumble like a house of cards
in your phony wonderland

your ramshackle leash around my neck
hasn’t choked me enough
to knock out the wind
out of my chest
those broken rods of resilience
though pounded a million times
with your sheer ignorance
hasn’t given it yet

You,
with a smirk on your face
think I have caged my heart
but instead, I have given it an armor
a valiant shield,
against your vulture beak
as it tries fervently to preen the truth
from the depth of my soul
my bones rattle in a symphony
with crimson rage.
when men explain things to me.

Megha Sood lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. She is a contributing member at Free Verse Revolution, Heretics, Lovers and Madmen, Sudden Denouement, Whisper and the Roar, GoDogGoCafe and Poetry editor at Ariel Chart. Over 300+ works in journals including Better than Starbucks, FIVE:2: ONE, KOAN, Kissing Dynamite, Mojave Heart Review, Adelaide, Foliate Oak. Visitant Lit, Quail Bell, Dime show review, etc. and works featured/upcoming in 20 other print anthologies by the US, Australian, and Canadian Press. Two-time State-level winner of the NAMI ( National Alliance on Mental Illness) NJ Poetry Contest 2018/2019.National level poetry finalist in Poetry Matters Prize 2019. Poetry selected multiple times for Genre Night reading by Jersey City Writers group and events sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs. She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.