Light in the bruise of the night
By Kuhu Joshi
On a date with the boy I finally like I talk about my father. How he found my mother at the officers’ academy, smiling and pinning her sarees. I tell my date, biting into ravioli, my father hunted for the woman who would birth me in the bowl of her lap, humming lullabies. My father still in office. “I really like this guy,” I texted my girlfriends from the bathroom on WhatsApp. And of course I didn’t tell my date how the story unfolded. My father twisted my arm, and more, on my sixteenth birthday. I was laughing with a boy, unwrapping presents. I still blew the candles, light in the bruise of the night and after, my mother stroked my curls on her lap and said, “He is not a monster,” “He is not a monster.” “I want to date him,” “I want to date him,” my mind was flashing as I sat across this warm and confident man who made me laugh so hard my kajal ran the length of my cheek. O, I wanted, then, to love him.
Kuhu Joshi is an Indian poet based in New York City. Her work has been published in POETRY, Best New Poets, Four Way Review, Black Fork Review, Rattle, Memorious, and others. She was awarded an honorable mention for the Academy of American Poets' university prize. She currently teaches college-level creative writing and composition. Her debut poetry collection, My Body Didn't Come Before Me, is forthcoming with Speaking Tiger Books India.
10/4 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Raina J. León / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
10/4 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Raina J. León and local poet Susannah Winters Simpson / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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It's wondrous how this poem mixes giddy excitement and deep sorrow so flawlessly.