Child Bride

her first smile of freedom

takes shape in the music of

her kaleidoscopic glass bangles—

dream come true

the bangles belong to her

but they are crushed into

a thousand fragments

under the weight of

his naked unleashed passion

on the very first night

she’s stifled in the punjent smell

of loveless desire.

the broken remnants of glass

scatter multiple colours

on the crumpled bedsheet

but mark her innocence

with only red.

like a million arrows shot at once

her shrieks of terror

pierce the uncanny silence

of the dark expanse outside.