"family reunion"

we cut a mango after dinner that day
slice of yellow against the earthbrown of our hands
our gazes catch and slip from across the table
eddies and currents of silence
meander sweetly about us
the fan blurs overhead
i tuck my legs underneath myself
and savor the taste

in the village past chettipalaiyum

mosquitoes fat with blood feasting from our exposed arms

thambi’s whining settles like a fine sheen of white noise over us all

sky’s so bright that you can’t quite distinguish the edges of the sun

 

offroad with dried grass murmuring about us

secrets that you’ll never hear in the rising cities of industrialized India

wet banana leaf and stale biriyani that we had for lunch

the smell remains even after the incense burrows into my skin

 

the village is gentle

shacks held up with ancient boughs of trees that watched my great great great great

grandfather blossom into a young man

a goat limps out from the shade

the air it’s loud and kind of nosy

pressing against the folds of our city-bright clothing

 

this is the earth that gave birth to us

the earth that god dipped his wide-knuckled hands into

to shape the curve of adam’s ribcage

this earth that stinks of excretion and isolation

of a people that are tucked into history textbooks that no one bothers to read

 

a village girl smiles as the electricity fizzles out

barthanatyam splatter of malyallam-tamil words that i only understand in the aftermoments

vannakum, epaddi irukeenga?

mother mary statue is said to bleed every month

the girl takes our hands leads us blindly through a thousand hail marys

it’s too dark to see the marks from

nails driven into her hands into her feet

they say she’s a prophet

gifted with the lord’s wounds

 

all i see

a world edged in icicles

watching their own blood spill from their

daughters’ splintered flesh

just for

a muffled sound.

a moment of recognition

 

india, industrialized india, bharat mata ki jai

 the earth we came from

 

we leave to fester

Prompt: Blues Poetry (First Draft)

seven am, slammin my knees into the bedpost when i swing em down
slamming my knees against the bedpost when i swing em down
oh the achin starts before i can make a sound

echo says my feet bare gainst the whisperin grass
echo echo calls my feet bare gainst the whisperin grass
with mama and papa turned away the world's so helpless and vast

she's pourin my first shot of hard liquor
pourin and pourin my first shot of hard liquor
slips slowsweet down my throat leaves me bleedin for more

cause she's a princess a comet a whisper but a female foremost
she's a challenge and a yearnin but a lipstick-draggin female foremost
and me pathetic me sleep drenched eyelids n elbow joints creakin with rust

can't reach her if i don't got the nerve
won't dare reach her if i don't got the nerve
daydreamin bout sippin dewdrops from her fingertips s'all i deserve

so i sew my mouth up play yesgirl to them all
sew it up tight, play yesgirl to them all
mama and papa they don't understand that slowsweet fall

just a girl tying fraying ribbons into my hair
just a girl knotting ribbons into my hair
god only knows what tomorrow's gonna ensnare

Prompt: Urgency (second draft)

"mother"

her knees begin to stick to
the floor
skin, bone, soft-eyed optimism
coagulate amongst the fibers of the carpet

but god has a tendency to
pick and choose
which prayers to answer

she, left in its wake
clam-shell whispers
breath fogging against
her cupped palms

but home, mother India,
kesari dollops
british sign-posts and dust
beneath her fingernails
pachadi and biriyani on freshly washed
banana leaves

coconut oil smudged across her cheekbones

and motherfather
with their outspread
outreaching
innocent arms

home was twenty years ago
her braids swinging to her knees
stealing pomegranates from
the neighbor's tree

before she took the hand of a stranger
trembled as his ring swallowed the warmth
from her sun-sweetened hands.


now, now, she pledges allegiance to the
stars and stripes
that stranger at the head of the table
her own eyes staring
up
from a child's face

motherfather their outspread arms
falter
as bones creak
pages of photo albums begin to
yellow

she begins to yellow.

i'm a cricket and a stained-glass window
with her eyes
a sharpened pencil and a cellphone charm
with her eyes

straining my ears to
catch
her clam-shell whispers

but
i can't hear anything at all

Prompt: Self-affirmation (draft #1)

"stutter"

my brother scrubs himself raw
three years old
stars stuttering in his hair
his silver power ranger
slides to the bottom of the bath

I keep washing, but I never get clean

are you ever clean if your skin is the same color as
Dirt.

but my smile presses dimples
into my cheeks

(he answers in kind)

i pick out those stuttering stars
one by one
burning the tips of my fingers
lay them against the bathroom tile

my brother, he’s got a
smile
sweeter than a promise
newly made

water spirals over the edge of the bathtub
those stars
they’ve all blinked out

embarrassed to be compared to that
tiptoe
of a smile