Alone, I am not

dark-skinned
will the stars mistake
me for night

first date
pouring tea, he asks
my cup size

consent
the distance between the hem
and my knee

burqa
and yet
catcalls

an orchid
trapped in a paperweight
child bride

clean sheets
he wants me
to talk dirty

oversewing
the ripped lotus
daddy stitch

grafted rose
slowly becoming what
they want me to be

dementors
the way they say I’m
“just a housewife”

gutting fish
my daughter says she doesn’t want
to be like me

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Vandana Parashar

Vandana Parashar is a postgraduate in Microbiology, an educator and a haiku poet. Her haiku, senryu and tanka have been published in many national and international journals of repute and has won her many prizes and accolades. Her haiku was also shortlisted for the prestigious Touchstone Award 2020 She is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook, Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.