Bonds
Photo: Karan Madhok
Poetry: ‘Missing / the wood for the trees. Child. Household. Family / Wielding the holy trifecta as their weapon’
Mild Malay fish curry does nothing to allay
what her words unleash. Searing rage that
I cannot keep off my face. Crabs in a
bucket, are we? Women? Haltingly, sipping
her juice, she tells me — women, sisters —
blood, her own, rallying in a corner that’s not
hers; aligning with systems debilitating. Missing
the wood for the trees. Child. Household. Family
Wielding the holy trifecta as their weapon,
hell-bent on passing deferred ambition in
inheritance. How original. Only, across the table
I can see, in the lift of her chin, however moist her
eyes may be, clutching claws of bonds, that rip no
less for being called love, aren’t going to find it easy.
