untitled

she takes the slums to her apartment
put up by a trespassing builder.
husband avoids the short cut.
their children --- packed, priced, vaccinated --
prefer the hovels.
they were born in the chawl.
hugs and quarrels were common for the similarly poor;
sharing onions, salt, oil, loose cash were a given;
their lingo, ankleted with abuse, couched in sharp spit,
were never thought so;
girls and boys played lagori together;
danced the first rains;
brought home Ganesha together;
dropped the Lord in the creek together;
stifled privacies together.