Image
The Crossing book cover
POEMS
Created: 10th May, 2022

from '336 days before'

Talking 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

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Manjeet Mann - Extract from 336 days before

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