Look, I am well aware of the consequences if the bowls aren’t full.
I am taking into careful consideration the biology of age, the economy, the smoking. In my kitchen, she sits quietly blinking.
If I call from my room, there may be an answer but I don’t disturb her. I’m a big believer of the independence of bodies
Linked only by proximity, physical or otherwise.
I’m all scratched out and wound-licked. She’s all but a blob of darkness, a little flesh and bones smaller than mine. I always forgive her.
I sometimes hold her until she runs. I’ve learnt that sometimes touch, unwelcome, may be appreciated. She’s fundamentally animal.
My twenty five years to her one and a half have come and gone. I feed and bathe and love.
Look, I think if I’d given birth, she’d become a person.
I am taking into careful consideration my future. I hope she will eat my loneliness before my heart
gives out.
Juilee is a Bangalore-based Mumbai girl working as a content writer. Her work has previously been published in Nether Quarterly and the Ayaskala magazine.