Elephants sway in my mother's e nglish
Pleased to meeting you she says
the multiple suffixes of her mother tongue
affix themselves to her meter: Okay-na
In Malayalam,vowels sit like an egg
On tongue Ant to aardvark
Her voice vies against drunkit English
hums with the rhythm of a Mridanangame
In English, the word Malayalam
reads the same from left to right as right to left-a mirror of contentment
If only other words were so settled.
My mother worries about the pale cluster's
on her mammogram
Breast Cancer is very popular now
Common,I say,not popular
Our other tongue is this silence
A hush,
a blank face
pressed against the glass
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i know my upper arms will grow flabby it's true of all the women in my family i know that the purple views like dead fish in Seine ...
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I didn't want to wait on my knees In a room made quiet by waiting. A room where we'd listen for the rise Of breath, the bur...
