Visitor by Rachit Sharma (Lucent Dreaming Issue 11)

My father’s sister were to visit him today

My mother dressed me up
in a green velvet shirt and dusted tons of talcum powder on my neck
I smelled like Waheed’s Ammi who wears white mogra in her ears.

My mother tells me that my aunt loves me. I love her too. Even though she never remembers my name.

The railings at our verandah are way taller than me,
the only way to have a good glimpse of the road below is to carefully slide your neck between the horizontal bars of the railing
and move your head from side to side – a long left to a long right

the road was filled with a familiar sunbird’s song and a squirrel’s squeak
the sound of my aunt’s old Jeepsi nowhere to be heard, she nowhere to be seen
there is no joy in a wait without a promise

I slid my neck out of the railings and went to my room to lie down
but all of a sudden was amazed by a known sound
a tiny silhouette was swinging on the Tibetan prayer flags in my room’s window
singing a prayer I had heard before

I wonder what took her to cross the long distance,
brave a family of throat puffed, angry pigeons
and appear like a gentle lightening
with a song filled sound.

Rachit designs and facilitates immersive leadership programs for young people in India.
He has been engaged with a number of social causes and has been published by
several national and international literary platforms. Currently, he lives in Meerut, India.
@Wrachit_sharma

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Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine and book publisher for beautiful, imaginative and surreal fiction, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.