Polite and Silent

You are a child-

you should be respectful!

You are young – 

you must be obedient!

You are too little to

have a voice.

Be silent when adults speak:

No interjections, no objections,

no obstructions, no interference.

And so it went from one 

childhood to another,

one sibling to the next,

a lesson drilled deep- 

the art of prim and proper,

polite and bland.

Tongues silenced, 

thoughts went unsaid, 

anger bottled, anguish muffled.

And so, the children watched

his hand strike her,

his drunken words 

slice through her spirit.

They saw her tears fall,

 her soul torn, 

her body battered.

And still, their tongues stayed 

quiet, their thoughts bottled,

their pain muzzled.

Always prim and proper, 

always polite, 

always silent.

Dog Days

It was the dogs, 

the animals who look docile 

during the day as they roam

the streets and look sheepishly at you.

It was the dogs, 

the same ones who bark 

endlessly at night, who 

suddenly turn into violent 

creatures to scare the passersby.

It was the dogs,

who kept him up as he stared 

blankly in the dark

watching the blades of the ceiling 

fan go round and round in 

a haunting mesmerizing rhythm.  

It was the dogs,

the only familiar sound,

echoing from the past to wake up 

the numbed nerves and his mind,

where youthful memories

are stuck in the quicksand of time.

It was the dogs, 

the dogs on the street that 

brought back the sounds of vendors

the shopkeepers, the rickshaw pullers,

the bus, and the gentle sound of dust  

spreading like a cloth of mist 

through your memory.

It was the dogs,

that barked at night and kept

him happy as he watched the 

hypnotic turns of the ceiling fan

churn up happiness from the past.

It was the dogs, that brought 

a few tears of joy in his nightly eyes,

as he lay awake, drenched in his memories,

finding solace to endure  

through the unfamiliar, dreary day.