Daddy Wears White

After letting the receiver hang
Precariously from the table
You had gone up to the roof
I had already seen the watery edges
Before I heard the echoing question on the phone
The last time you cried, I pointed at the stars
And said “Look, everyone we love, takes our pictures from above”
We heard the howl that announced the loss
Ma told us that we will not eat salt
And Daddy will wear white
“I am nobody’s child now,” you said
Funny that a grown-up considered himself a child
Grandpa never came back next summer from the village
When you did, after 13 days had passed, you were just a pair of red eyes
Your white sandals, trousers, and shirt were spotless
As if your soul was a clean slate
I could not recognize you
Without the mustache you gave up in memory
And the hair that was left behind in mourning
Your lips quivered more than ever
I wanted to be somebody’s child, always

*

Inspiration Coma

I heard those footsteps
Did not lock the door
Yes, I did know
You had come back for more
Those frozen hands first turned off the tap
Daringly, you seated on my lap
Inch by inch, the curtains you had drawn
Sedative, the darkness was on
A heavy lid now fell upon the well
I had no plan of escaping, you could tell
The void can be a magnetic hypnosis
The lull can dull you yet feel like bliss
Who knows how long you lie in nothingness
When meaning itself becomes meaningless?

*

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round

The girl on the bus
was someone’s kid
To pay for a ride
was all she did
The men on the bus
just saw a treat
Their souls fell in turns
into a dark pit
The rods on the bus
just hit, hit, hit
To scream and to plead
and bleed, bleed, bleed
The girl on the bus
was a torn lump of meat
They laughed and they said
She had asked for it

__________________________________________

Anuja Ghimire is a native of Kathmandu Nepal. She received her MA in literary studies from UT Dallas and edited for UT Dallas journal Sojourn. Her poetry is published in Pena International, Red River Review, Words Like Rain, Glass, Clay, Ishaan Literary Review, and two anthologies in her native language of Nepali. Some of her published writing can be found in http://saffronandsymmetry.tumblr.com.