BELONGING
I don’t belong here, you tell me.
I don’t belong here where the monsoons
drain the sky of all water? This darkness
is not cloud covering the sky in layers
of collyrium dust. This darkness is the
darkness of your heart staining the air.
Can you wipe clean the slate of memory,
my smile etched on fond photographs,
the family fables, the tangle of feuds
and the look in your eyes, when I,
your unwanted daughter, walk in
demanding my dues? I may not belong
here anymore, but I demand the song
of every cuckoo that sang on the thatch,
the footprints of every squirrel that scuttled
across the courtyard, and the cries of every
dark goddess you deified in false myths.
Usha Kishore is an Indian-born British poet, editor and translator. The author of three collections of poetry, her work has been widely published. www.ushakishore.co.uk
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