Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Author:Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Published: 2018-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

I find an answer in my coat pocket, a folded note my son sneaked

there while we waited at the ticket counter, addressed, To: Mommy.

Probably by the time you read this, Daddy is quiet and driving us home.

I aim my gaze to the almost-planets. Isn’t the sky colored like a parrot, Mom?

Flowers at the Taj Mahal

I question you, poppy,

paper-thin bloom

and spindly rubber neck.

I accuse you of a mouth

cupped open like

a slobbering jackal’s,

like happy rats in cheese.

There is no greater victory

than seeing you like this

after all these years:

thin legs, all teeth and eyes

and a frayed sari cottoned

around you. I look

to your shadows—how you

glow in sunrise or sunset,

marbleizing the wet eyes

of tourists and their stupid

toothpaste smell. After two

houses, four states, a new car,

and two sons pulled from me—

how could I love another

mountain, monsoon, another

man? How could I love

a mausoleum I never met?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.