I always dreamed of
saving my dear ones by
being there on time

just to get over the nightmare
of admitting my baby in the ICU
after a rickety rickshaw
ride into the darkest night
in the hills.

In my to-do list,
I still have to learn
using a first-aid kit,
administer a CPR,
and save a few people

– from strokes.

Now that the two men I loved
died without even giving a hint,
(one died without any struggle,
another, face down on his quilt
with a big bump on his head)
I am spared a night-drive,
a CPR, and perhaps, vomiting.

When you understand that
things cannot work the way they do
in movies, you will witness death
as an angel plastered on church walls
in a half-orgasmic, half-grievous face
of Pieta,
and perhaps,
that’s not even the kind
of expression a super woman
should wear.

Babitha Marina Justin

 

Babitha Marina Justin is from Kerala, South India. Her poems have appeared in Eclectica, Fulcrum, The Scriblerus, Inlandia, Constellations and many other journals. Her first collection of poetry, Of Fireflies, Guns and the Hills was published in 2015. Her first novel, Maria’s Swamp: The Bigness of Small Lies, will be published in April 2019.

© 2019