Five Uneasy Pieces by Rukmini Bhaya Nair

I. Advice

Let the wind blow through

Let the light in, you say

But this I cannot do.

My poems are heavy, dark shawls

Huddled in them, every season,

I’m obscure as a sibyl.

             The hailstone syllables

                                                 Clatter

                                                     And melt.

II. Reprisal

I, who have never known

Violence, see at nights

This – the moon-thugs

Finishing off a woman.

Mostly she is eyes

Minus the other marks

That make up a face. And

Her sari, winding red, tears

Audibly.

All my childhood, I slept

With a knife tucked under

Two pillows, for safety.

And that crescent still glistens

Maleficent.

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