Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry

Contents

Contents Editors’ Preface xv Thank Yous xviii Introduction xix REETIKA VAZIRANI It’s a Young Country. 3 From the Postcard at Vertigo Bookstore in D.C. 4 It’s Me, I’m Not Home 5 Aerogram Punjab 5 VANDANA KHANNA Blackwater Fever 7 Hair 8 Dot Head 9 Echo 10 MOHAMMAD FAISAL HADI My Uncle, Failing to Slaughter the Goat of His 12th Eid 12 Fatima 13 Public Benefits 14 MAYA KHOSLA Oppenheimer quotes The Bhagavad Gita 16 Return to Grand Canyon 18 Sequoia Sempervirens 19 Under Wolf-Paw 20 TANUJA MEHROTRA Manthara 22 Nainital 24 Song for New Orleans 25 VIJAY SESHADRI The Disappearances 30 Elegy 32 The Dream I Didn’t Have 33 Memoir 33 BHANU KAPIL from Humanimal [a project for future children] 35 VIKAS MENON Radha 38 Drown 40 Urdu Funk: The Gentle Art of Subtitles 41 SUMMI KAIPA from A Personal Cinema 42 from The Epics 43 MINAL HAJRATWALA Angerfish 46 Miss Indo-America dreams 51 Generica/America 52 CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI Yuba City School 54 The Geography Lesson 56 Two Women Outside a Circus, Pushkar 58 Indian Movie, New Jersey 60 SEJAL SHAH Everybody’s Greatest Hits 62 Accordion 63 Independence, Iowa 64 NEELANJANA BANERJEE Cowgirl Series I 66 Priapos 67 viii CONTENTS AMARNATH RAVVA I Am Burning a Pig in My Room, Apollinaire 69 Bear Scat Flat 71 the spectacle of a few trees in spring, off the 5. 74 MYTILI JAGANNATHAN nationalism redactor 77 Dream House 79 SRIKANTH REDDY Jungle Book 80 Scarecrow Eclogue 81 Fundamentals of Esperanto 82 Corruption 87 PRAGEETA SHARMA Paper 88 Paper II 89 I Cannot Forget You 89 In Open Water, In Mathematical Star 90 SASHA KAMINI PARMASAD Burning 91 Sugarcane Farmer 92 The Old Man 94 VIVEK JAIN Poem for a Would Be Revolutionary, My Father 96 Anand’s Story 97 December, 1984 97 RO GUNETILLEKE Lost Column 99 Spirited Away 100 AMITAVA KUMAR Mistaken Identity 102 Against Nostalgia 106 CONTENTS ix SACHIN B. PATEL In the Business of Erasing History 111 The Blacktop Gospels 112 BUSHRA REHMAN Ami’s Cassettes 117 At the Museum of Natural History 118 The Difference 119 SHAILJA PATEL Shilling Love 120 Love Poem for London 125 SUDEEP SEN Offering 129 Jacket on a Chair 131 AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL The Mascot of Beavercreek High Breaks Her Silence 133 Fishbone 134 Last Aerogramme to You, With Lizard 135 Mr. Mustard’s Dance Club: Ladies’ Night 136 RAVI CHANDRA Cleanup on Aisle #3 137 The Old Man Speaks 139 RALPH NAZARETH A Question for Vaclav Havel 140 Red Eye 141 Horse Play 142 MEENA ALEXANDER River and Bridge 143 September Sunlight 144 Color of Home 144 Slow Dancing 146 x CONTENTS FAISAL MOHYUDDIN Ayodhya 148 Blood Harmonies 154 Poem Inspired by a Note Found Scrawled onto the Inside Cover of One Day at a Time in Al-Anon Sitting on a Bookshelf at Café Ambrosia, Evanston, Illinois 155 DILRUBA AHMED The 18th Century Weavers of Muslin Whose Thumbs Were Chopped 157 Learning 159 Invitation 161 PRAMILA VENKATESWARAN Draupadi’s Dharma 164 Exile 165 BHARGAVI C. MANDAVA Of Starry Silence 167 Moonsweets 168 REENA NARAYAN My Daughter 170 Tobacco Wrapped in The Fiji Times 172 HOMRAJ ACHARYA The Silk-Cotton Tree 176 The Kerosene Stove 178 R. PARTHASARATHY from Exile 181 The Concise Kamasutra 185 Remembered Village 186 CONTENTS xi PURVI SHAH Made in India, Immigrant Song #3 187 Unhoming 188 Nature’s Acre, POSTED 189 KAZIM ALI The River’s Address 191 Thicket 192 Event 192 MONICA FERRELL Confessions of Beatrice D’Este 194 The Coin of Your Country 195 In the Binary Alleys of the Lion’s Virus 196 Love, the Kunstkammer Version 197 RAVI SHANKAR The Flock’s Reply to the Passionate Shepherd 198 Before Sunrise, San Francisco 199 Return to Mumbai 200 VINAY DHARWADKER A Draft of Excavations 202 Thirty Years Ago, in a Suburb of Bombay 204 ARYANIL MUKHERJEE after promise 205 treeforms :: the touch of language 206 memory writings :: picnic 207 INDRAN AMIRTHANAYAGAM Runner 209 Girl Dressed 210 The City, with Elephants 212 xii CONTENTS SWATI RANA Stopping for the Northern Lights 214 To Reveal 215 SUBHASHINI KALIGOTLA Lepidoptera 217 Letter to New York 218 My Heart Belongs to Daddy 219 MONA ALI Noor 220 The Wolf’s Cry 221 AGHA...