Poetry by arushi (aera) rege

    Lewin Bormann CC



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imprecise victories

like spent gold, my lover watches me molt out of what it means to be woman. an apple is a woman is adam is eve is meant to be consumed. i am a caged canary waiting for the mine to be unsafe & i am a bomb’s clock running out of time. desire is an imprecise victor. i am waiting for the man i love to come home to me & i am waiting at the pearly gates forever. i know nothing but to haunt my own body & i know how to fall in love: counting by threes. desire is an imprecise victor & i am a pyrrhic victory & i am waiting alongside rose-tinted sunglasses, goading along the man i love. take a bite baby. desire is a word that means hunger, and god, am i hungry. there is a black hole in the place where your name resides in mine. baby, if i could carry your name i would. i am woman so i am nothing but lately i am nothing but a puddle of tears & a caged canary begging to be set free. i am begging to sing. i am begging to be consumed, baby, if i could make myself small enough to be swallowed whole i would. if i could make myself large enough to withstand the weight of the world (your love) i would. like spent gold, my lover watches me molt out of what it means to be woman. desire is an imprecise victor & i am a pyrrhic victory & i am waiting to be someone greater than i am & i am waiting to be loved & i am waiting to be more than i am & i am waiting to stop being consumed. i am the caged canary waiting for the mine to become unsafe. i am waiting to sing.




​arushi (aera) rege is a queer, chronically in pain, Indian-American poet in senior year in high school. They tweet occasionally @academic_core and face the perils of instagram @aeranem_26. Their chapbooks, exit wounds (no point of entry), and BROWN GIRL EPIPHANY, are forthcoming with Kith Books and fifth wheel press. They are the EIC of nightshade lit, Bus Talk, and Draupadi Interviews. You can find their website at arushiaerarege.carrd.co.
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