The Body Shadowed

Yours is not a body
where sensuousness is enshrined.
Its curves, desires have become
mere relics of a bygone past,
a forgotten memory,
faded images on a wall
where intense gazes no longer fall.
You are in a shadow
devoid of existence
beyond yourself.
It’s a zone
marked by the passage of time
and the ravages of bygone moments;
it’s a comfort zone
that nurtured generations
made uncomfortable
in the present
and by the future.
Lost to the
memory of the world,
you exist
only in your own memory
and in the shadows of time.

November 2010, Tokyo

‘Measured, Stitched and Stretched’ (Painting, 2010) / ’Silent Grievers’ (Installation, 2007).  Artwork and image: Anoli Perera, 2010.