Sounds

if we cock our ears just right we snag my
mother’s tongue spilling over. waterfall
of ecstatic shrieks. demolition chants
crack glass windows. they don’t drown my grandfather’s
plaintive song: small dark-fleshed strain sinking
needlepoint claws into vein. he tells a
tale of walking to class. quickening past

children nailed to walls, small brown bodies shriveled
      old grapes. trickling    last of their tears.
he remembers being drenched in that same
feeling inside soft susurrating halls
of the british museum. the way he
learned what color his blood was. the way he
discovered its shape loosening on the street.

if we cock our ears just right we snag my
mother’s tongue spilling over. waterfall
of ecstatic shrieks. demolition chants
crack glass windows. they don’t drown my grandfather’s
plaintive song: small dark-fleshed strain sinking
needlepoint claws into vein. he tells a
tale of walking to class. quickening past

children nailed to walls, small brown bodies shriveled
      old grapes. trickling    last of their tears.
he remembers being drenched in that same
feeling inside soft susurrating halls
of the british museum. the way he
learned what color his blood was. the way he
discovered its shape loosening on the street.

if we cock our ears just right we snag my
mother’s tongue spilling over. waterfall
of ecstatic shrieks. demolition chants
crack glass windows. they don’t drown my grandfather’s
plaintive song: small dark-fleshed strain sinking
needlepoint claws into vein. he tells a
tale of walking to class. quickening past

children nailed to walls, small brown bodies shriveled
      old grapes. trickling    last of their tears.
he remembers being drenched in that same
feeling inside soft susurrating halls
of the british museum. the way he
learned what color his blood was. the way he
discovered its shape loosening on the street.

Sharanya Sharma is a writer and teacher from Washington, D.C. whose work deconstructs mythology and explores the effects of the Indian diaspora. She received an MFA in writing from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is forthcoming in Silver Needle Press, and has received honorable mentions for the Academy of American Poets Award and the Bain Swiggett Poetry Prize.