JGeorge’s poems appear or is forthcoming in several online and print journals, most recently in Mookychick, The Initial Journal, Active Muse, TROU Lit Mag, Peach Street Mag, The Martian Chronicles, and FishfoodMag, and the anthologies Boundless (Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival 2019) and Love, As We Know It (Delhi Poetry Slam). She currently lives in Pondicherry, where she is pursuing research at Pondicherry University.
Pencil Shavings
Every evening I find the shavings of your eye brow pencil
near the dressing mirror,
along with some talcum on the floor;
Like tiny pleated skirts of dancers on white snow, they stay.
The sharpenings of your pencil, for darkening your eyebrows.
Shreds of oiled skins from frequent touching shed down,
for some newer beginnings with sharper goals.
Each evening before you, your pencil is ready
with the blunt past chiseled and the rawness of the moment ready,
like mother, every day before you with a cup of coffee,
brimming with hope, I believe.
And your willingness to change papa, I see,
you shove the pencil into the darkest spot of the shelf,
after shading those lines to thick eyebrows – a perfect illusion.