Storytelling
So we decided to pack our duffel bags for that long trip
Not missing the favorite music on stations that sang us
Wisdom lullabies on birthdays and paydays, and decided
Not to forget hugging dear momma, a father, once fathers
Were gone for quite some time to imagined battle fields.
So she too decided it was the only way she’d pay for college
So she whistled like she was off on her first date, was wise
To leave her brother the new camcorder burying their silly
Feuds, saving happy memories before a whistling bullet got her.
So he too decided, the homesick Private, to blow kisses over the
Shrapnel on a Valentine’s video, called the friendly desert back-
Drop a sunset point where he hoped, sigh, this day would not
Present him another bouquet of limbs, the evening would not
Spray him with the bitter champagne of sweaty blood and bile.
Before the goats and sheep came home with the boy who
Mistook cannon for merry fireworks announcing good tidings
Of Ashura, before the girl who sold lime juice to beat the
Fahrenheit saved her green merchandise in her soiled apron
Before faraway villagers met dusty soldiers combing fields for
Strange harvests: Have you seen any enemy combatant? Yes!
Pat came the reply: Like you, you mean? Or perhaps, like them—
So, we decided to tell this story before you forgot our names.
Nabina lives two lives, shuttling between USA and India. Her first novel “Footprints in the Bajra” is available from Cedar Books, India; while her poetry, short stories and essays have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies in North America, Asia and Australia, the very recent ones being Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi, India), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), and Bosphorus Arts Project Quarterly (US). An Associate Fellow for the prestigious Sarai-CSDS "City as Studio" Fellowship 2010 (New Delhi, India), Nabina has won prizes in the all-India poetry contests organized by UNISUN Reliance in 2010, Prakriti Foundation in 2009, and HarperCollins-India and Open Space in 2008. Nabina is also a 2007 Joan Jakobson fiction scholar from Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, and a 2007 Julio Lobo fiction scholar from Lesley Writers’ Conference. A journalist and media person in India and the US for about 10 years in all, Nabina blogs at http://fleuve-souterrain.blogspot.com/ when not writing. Formally trained in Indian classical music, she has performed in radio and TV programs and acted in street theater productions in India. A bilingual with a Linguistics Masters, Nabina writes in three languages and is an editor with the literary journal Danse Macabre (USA).
So we decided to pack our duffel bags for that long trip
Not missing the favorite music on stations that sang us
Wisdom lullabies on birthdays and paydays, and decided
Not to forget hugging dear momma, a father, once fathers
Were gone for quite some time to imagined battle fields.
So she too decided it was the only way she’d pay for college
So she whistled like she was off on her first date, was wise
To leave her brother the new camcorder burying their silly
Feuds, saving happy memories before a whistling bullet got her.
So he too decided, the homesick Private, to blow kisses over the
Shrapnel on a Valentine’s video, called the friendly desert back-
Drop a sunset point where he hoped, sigh, this day would not
Present him another bouquet of limbs, the evening would not
Spray him with the bitter champagne of sweaty blood and bile.
Before the goats and sheep came home with the boy who
Mistook cannon for merry fireworks announcing good tidings
Of Ashura, before the girl who sold lime juice to beat the
Fahrenheit saved her green merchandise in her soiled apron
Before faraway villagers met dusty soldiers combing fields for
Strange harvests: Have you seen any enemy combatant? Yes!
Pat came the reply: Like you, you mean? Or perhaps, like them—
So, we decided to tell this story before you forgot our names.
Nabina lives two lives, shuttling between USA and India. Her first novel “Footprints in the Bajra” is available from Cedar Books, India; while her poetry, short stories and essays have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies in North America, Asia and Australia, the very recent ones being Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi, India), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), and Bosphorus Arts Project Quarterly (US). An Associate Fellow for the prestigious Sarai-CSDS "City as Studio" Fellowship 2010 (New Delhi, India), Nabina has won prizes in the all-India poetry contests organized by UNISUN Reliance in 2010, Prakriti Foundation in 2009, and HarperCollins-India and Open Space in 2008. Nabina is also a 2007 Joan Jakobson fiction scholar from Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, and a 2007 Julio Lobo fiction scholar from Lesley Writers’ Conference. A journalist and media person in India and the US for about 10 years in all, Nabina blogs at http://fleuve-souterrain.blogspot.com/ when not writing. Formally trained in Indian classical music, she has performed in radio and TV programs and acted in street theater productions in India. A bilingual with a Linguistics Masters, Nabina writes in three languages and is an editor with the literary journal Danse Macabre (USA).
