Lamia to the Soldier, by Anika Niyah Panda

Lamia and the Soldier, by John William Waterhouse (Britain) 1905

Lamia to the Soldier

Even the lady in me deliquescences 
into a girl on her knees under the 
fleeting brush of your ridgeless skin.

Yes, I am starved, imprisoned from
human touch to the reminiscence
of caress as an evacuation from me. 

I am an apostasy in each encounter
or a fallacy draped in serpentine 
fluidity held in the arms of a thicket. 

The viridian forest is not a gentle lover 
it’s violence pushes inwards into me
through my every flickered movement.

Bark grates the ophidian glabrousity
bruising ivory of underbellied skin
which has transformed into entire arms.

In the grace of your presence where
I have shed my armour of scales
now, you shed yours.

Anika Niyah Panda

Anika Niyah Panda is an emerging high school poet and writer from India. She has been recognized by the National Children’s Literary Festival for her endeavour in short story writing in 2022 and hopes for more.