Dheepa Maturi

I AM THE SAME

When I sent the birds away,

I figured Time would fly away, too,

that it would seal the rifts — seal me.

Am I not the same as I was before the birds?

 

Before the birds launched,

they kissed my face, took its threads,

and pulled.

My skin stretched soft over

my bones and tissues.

See, I’m just the same.

 

My birds were powerful —

they flew into the wind,

against its currents, and

— look at that — they spun

the world backwards. They

reminded me: I was afraid,

yet I was courageous. I was

budding, but I was undone.

 

I tugged that skin

over the rest of my body,

and it fit just fine. I returned

to the old mile marker.

 

I am the same as I was.

bio

Dheepa R. Maturi enjoys exploring the rich and surprising ways in which cultures interact over time. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago, her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including Literary Hub, PANK, The Fourth River, Tiferet, Every Day Poems, Crosswinds, Canyon Voices, Entropy, the Brevity blog, Tweetspeak Poetry, Wanderlust, The Offbeat, Defenestration, Jaggery, Dear America: Reflections on Race, and The Indianapolis Review... Full Profile