Image
from '336 days before'
By Manjeet Mann
TYPE
PoemTalking to Mama is
Like getting blood from a stone.
She’s silent,
staring at her food,
moving it around her plate.
We sit at the table,
in a room that once vibrated with music,
where Sophia and I would secretly watch
Baba and Mama dancing after dinner,
long after they’d put us to bed.
I smile at the memory.
Mama looks at me.
What? she asks.
I was just thinking of you and
Baba and how Sophia and I loved watching you dance.
You thought we were asleep,
but we’d hide behind the sofa and watch.
She smiles.
Oh, we knew.
You must be brave
© Manjeet Mann from The Crossing, Penguin Random House