Saturday, April 28, 2018

For Asifa. 

I wish I had never heard her name. 

Maybe, in a better world
I would have, anyway. 
Maybe, then, it would have been breathed
in awe, in wonder, in pride-
maybe


The odds are against it, though. 
I rather think-
she would've grown up ordinary-
an indifferent education,if any,
jobs that paid for the gas
and energy saving electric bulbs,
and because this better world
is still the same world
maybe a husband to cook meals for
and children's noses to wipe snot from
and the occasional quiet moment
of looking up at the stars
and thinking
what if

an ordinary life
the best odds offered
to any of us-

- I wish I hadn't seen her eyes
brighter than anything in that photograph,
even her purple kurta with the yellow flowers-



I wish I had never heard her name.

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