“Secret Places” by Mohini Takhar
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Secret Places” by Mohini Takhar.
Secret Places
By Mohini Takhar
I watch people I love play board games around the table, and the chatter echoes from Jamie’s apartment
building to the street below us as we walk in together after months apart. We both looked at each other
through our expressions, an exchange of we can do this. The chatter acts like a pillow between us. You
confess later that night how many times you stole glances at me; the way you noticed my leopard print
dress paired with a silver necklace with a bow. On our way back to the SkyTrain, we discuss the night, my
friends, and at some point, us. Us is the scariest phrase I know. I know scary feelings like the back of my
hand, they flow through my veins, then grasp onto the bottom of my back. It haunts me like the handprint
on my body when you touch me at night. Sparks of electricity spread throughout my body as your fingers
trail down my skin; my jagged breath signals how much your touch intoxicates me when expletives exit
my tongue in broken syllables. I pull you into me underneath the twilight sky and bouncing lamplight,
pretend I have something to tell you, perhaps a forbidden secret whispered in your ear. My hands find
their way around your neck, pulling you in close, I taste leftover pizza on your lips. We hide in secret
alleyways behind the restaurant; back against the wall, you go. I stay looking into your eyes, not being
afraid to kiss you where people might catch us, and you aren’t afraid to kiss me.
Copyright © Mohini Takhar
Mohini Takhar is a disabled writer and multidisciplinary artist from Vancouver, BC. She is a third-year Creative Writing student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Takhar’s essay “I’m Different; You Know It, I Know It. Let’s Talk About It” was published in Pearls 40: An Anthology Of Work By Douglas College Creative Writing Students. In 2021, she self-published her chapbook, Pieces of Me. Her video-poem, Ode to my Upbringing, was released with Brick Books in April 2022.
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