A New Dawn Poem by Shruti Das

I have left you back.
I have left you sitting
with the needles, the spikes,
and bloodless veins of yesterday.
I have left back
ghost like memories that haunted me
and threatened to grip my brain
and squeeze my heart till drops
of sweat oozed out of my toe nails.
With a sway of my hips
I have left you with the last autumn leaves
to laugh your toothless scary laugh
through the iron railings of yesterdays windows.

I have put on string less shoes
I have unsashed the frills of my dress
and left you the scissors
which you sharpened to clip my wings.
My wings have tasted the wind,
have slipped out
through the keyholes of your dark home
into a mindless stubbornness.

I have left and
now gyrate my hips
to the music of the wind.
I sway and swirl
swish and bow.
Winter, spring, summer
there is always song in the wind.
I have left you sitting by the window
with your fat fingers and overgrown teeth
sucking the stale air
and playing clogged flutes.
The sunshine tempted me
into liquid passion.
I left you with your needles and
spikes and blunt scissors. I was tempted
by a new language,
a new dress, a new dance
and a new set of teeth for a new smile.
I swayed my hips
in exaggerate abandon
in a new dawn, in a new year.