“Eyes that hawk low over her are burnt deep in scorn. Hunger comes in search of her body.”
By Jose Varghese
An APWT publication
Little mother rocks the baby in her tiny arms that’ve migrated from pain
to numbness, from struggles to sorrows. She forgets the lies about better
worlds. Eyes that hawk low over her are burnt deep in scorn. Hunger comes
in search of her body. Overgrown fingernails dig deep on the flesh of her past,
palms find relief in soft contours. She sings, rocking the baby. A mythical light
enters through slit windows to become aureoles that hover around their heads.
Jose Varghese (India) is the author of Silver Painted Gandhi and Other Poems and his short story manuscript ‘In/Sane’ was a finalist in the 2018 Beverly International Prize. His second poetry collction will be published in 2021 by the Black Spring Press group, UK. He was a finalist in the London Independent Story Prize (LISP), a runner up in the Salt Flash Fiction Prize 2013, and was commended in Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize 2014. His works have appeared in The Best Asian Short Story Anthology 2019, Dreich, Meridian, Unthology 5, Unveiled, Reflex Fiction, Chandrabhaga, Kavya Bharati, and Postcolonial Text.
The banner picture is by Liv Bruce and downloaded from Unsplash.com