Identity Poem by Ponniah Ganeshan

IDENTITY


Within how many layers of clothes
That cannot be pulled off,
Should I smother and perspire:

At times
The soft beautiful cherries
That crystallize within me
Vanish like dream in thin air.

It is true
In the freezing cold that chills my body
And the heat that scorches my soul
I have to clothe myself
With something.

How could I breath
In a place
Where the freezing cold
And the scorching heat
Cannot meet.


-Ponniah Ganeshan