Little Cat

when a figure rose through the darkness.

Sister, it cast a sorcerer’s noose

and it bound me.

What the world calls virtue suddenly

vanished.

I performed a strange rite –

Mira may be a slave, sister,

but she herself

chose whom to sleep with.

– Mirabai, 14981550

MIRE

Things are different in the middle of the night. Rooms, legs, eyes, whatever. The air’s so full of static that no one can see, so everyone just acts, because all acts are fine.

The acts that have led me to the middle of the night reveal their inevitable order when I’m stuck. When all my soft and black thoughts slide into a chain.

Until at just the right moment, finally I’m lucid and I know how a cock can complete me. A good hard cock never leaves you alone.

But morning is broken on its way in. I don’t care what anyone says about the dawn. Its cracks break me too.

‘Men think a woman walking alone at night is a whore,’ John said once. He was pulling off my underwear. ‘It doesn’t even matter what she’s wearing or how she’s walking. If it’s late on the streets and she’s all by herself, he’s gonna roll down his window and stare at her ass. It’s like he’s waiting for something, Mira, that one tiny click when he knows that she’s going to get in his car.’

John had my underwear down at my feet. I kicked them off and twisted my legs together.

‘No girl’s going to get in a strange man’s car,’ I said.

‘You would.’

‘I would not.’

John laughed as he worked at wrenching my thighs apart. ‘Yes you would, Mira.’

‘Stop. I would not!’

‘You’d get in my car.’

‘No!’

‘I’d follow you and keep telling you how hot your ass is.’

‘Shut up!’

‘Oh yeah, I know you. You’d get in my car.’

I rolled my eyes and kept struggling. It was like this every single time we saw each other.

‘Come, Mira, come,’ John would end up crooning to my pussy. ‘Come, baby, come, please come, come, come … ’

My mind wandered while he licked me. I scratched my arms and watched his bobbing head. His eyes were slit and heavy between my bent thighs. It didn’t feel real. All I could feel was wetness on top of wetness.