Expatriate Story

Uncategorized 1 Minute

NovPAD Day 14 (______ Story)

a girl sprouts like putri malu
beside the chug of sea
beside the long grey of low tides
beside the topless papaya tree
beside air conditioners that groan and drip

there are grasshoppers arcing between golfballs
and in the wet season puddles slide into every afternoon

she speaks bahasa dapur,
plays with a pet goat and
learns that jungles hide guns
and the sad rain of monkeys

she sees her father pedal backwards from handle bars
and stays with neighbours when her brother gets so sick 

he goes away to the hospital 
with the coffee-eyed deer
and the imprinting shock 
of her mother’s tears

after she banged her head, after screams, white cloth
and a big crescent needle, life tilts and she goes “home” 

to school in a classroom
lost in blue uniforms
among chittering and 
the scratching of her peers

when the Fox girl flicks shiny dark hair and snarls at her
she's reminded of the monkeys, their graceless fall

Published by abigfatcanofworms

We all walk in the dark. But if we hold hands, perhaps the dark won't be as scary.

Published

8 thoughts on “Expatriate Story”

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