By Michelle D’costa

The bride with no eyelashes

Do you want a bride

Who has eyelashes

Like every other girl?

The girl I know

Is not ordinary

Like every other girl 

You have dated.

If you want an extraordinary bride,

I know where she lives.

I know exactly where she lives,

In the past.

Her eyes don’t stay closed 

When you kiss her

They instead trace

the contours of your face

Hoping you won’t disappear

For an ordinary girl

With ordinary eyelashes

That have been beautified

With an eyelash curler and mascara.

She carefully plucks her eyelashes

The way an ordinary girl 

Plucks petals.

She carefully stores them

The way an ordinary girl

Stores love letters

Under her mattress.

The pea under this princess’ 

Mattress is a billion eyelashes

Who have no home.

She wants to build a home

With you, her prince, will you marry her?

Michelle D’costa is a Mangalorean from Mumbai. She was born and raised in Bahrain. She works at Bound, a literary company, and her poetry and prose have been published in journals like Out Of Print, Eclectica, Litro UK, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, Coldnoon, Vayavya, Guftugu and more. She loves to interview writers and her work can be found at https://michellewendydcosta.wordpress.com/.