Poetry by Deya Mukherjee

Image via Morguefile

Cough

She coughed a lot
in a green coat.

That green on most the frightened throb of alcopops,
on her an itchy kind of hallucination.

Hair fat with the lusty nausea of leaves and petrol,
lips the colour of a child’s shoes.

The child’s shoes dig the dirt when asked her age.
“I’m trying to think what’s after 4.”

“5?”
“Yes, 5. I’m the king of my ship.”

She coughed a lot more now.

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Deya Mukherjee is a British Indian poet based in London. Her focus is on liminal spaces, and diaspora culture in particular. She is currently working on a novel. Her poetry has been published in Verse Kraken and Tears in the Fence.