Poetry – Summer 2014
A-B-C-D
A for assimilation
B forgetting the brown
C for Columbus, not Colombo—
that song that every immigration child knows
Republic Day, 2014
I wanted to parade a toy soldier,
Impotent and unmanly,
In this country of men and manners.
I asked the police for permission.
They said, sorry,
We only parade puffed up chests.
forest, matheran hills
notice, she said, language body nature prayer
follow the same rules of resting
My Father’s White Shirts
i fill the washing machine with soap and a week’s worth
of my father’s undershirts
tangled like a clutch of heron’s eggs ready to hatch
only one will live
Oranges, memory
I buy one and dig my nails
beneath skin. Ride these waves
of scent with me
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