CW: Sexual Abuse
Today, he said, we will not have sex, and I was pleased and released and buried my face in his sanctioned holiday. He moaned. I scratched my nipple that itched like my stomach or my hand or my knee but it was my nipple and it itched and it provoked an undoing unhooking unzipping: The body remembers even as the mind reposes. He said I wanted it. My feminine presence warranted it, my poor detached thoughtless hand on his chest that he traced back to my body triggered it. I did, I said, my culprit hands holding my body together.
Akhila Pingali is a research scholar from Hyderabad, India. Her work appears/is forthcoming in SoFloPoJo, trampset, Defunkt Magazine, Brave Voices, Tint Journal, etc. You can find her on Twitter @akhilapingali.