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Mallika Khan

Love Letters in Yellow (ii)

I was yours in yellow. In twinkling light.

Barely, but bright enough for me to know

the rouge in your cheeks. Switched off in the night

for you to bask in someone else’s glow.

I was tied to you in yellow. Lemon

shoelaces coming undone easily;

just like the rest of you. Peach to soften

the sharp from my cherry lips discreetly.

I wrote your confessions in yellow. Words

indelible but not quite set in stone.

No scarlet letter. Still, I was absurd

to dream of being branded as your own.

I envy whoever is yours in red.

Love in rouge, with cherry, love that’s branded.


Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon

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