Absence

You caress tender spots
others have created
and I wince, withdraw,
wait a while
Until I offer myself again
with all my tenderness
and I offer myself again
And you may think I succumb
too easily. No, not numb,
I feel. Every ache, every pleasure

I feel, opening the tender spots to stimuli
Sure, it is a lot of effort
This inevitability of vulnerability
Ending in pain
But riddle me this-
Say, I do not succumb
Say, I feel and say nothing
though it is a lot of effort.
Riddle me this,
does a lack of pain
necessarily mean a lack of hurt?

- Khushi Kaul