To begin with,
while you are whole,
you, by no means, compass wholesome,
to feel whole,
one should be made fractional,
ripped off
and sutured to compactness.

After mastectomy,
the streets are full of flawless women,
who were opportunists enough
to save their wholeness.
You consider them
with wary eyes
to tag a stranger
who’s femininity has been halved,
she runs past you,
in fright of being
enticed to a forbidden tribe
and your powerless eyes fail. . .

To feel whole,
you should be made fractional.

*Through the eyes of women who have been ripped off their wholeness.

…

Mini Babu works as Associate Professor of English with the Dept. of Collegiate Education, Govt. of Kerala, India. Her works have been published in anthologies and Journals in India and outside. She has three poetry collections – Kaleidoscope, Shorelines & Memory Cells. She has also edited two collections of Poems. Her poems has been translated as well.