Indelible in the Hippocampus is the Laughter

Sialkot 1969 Anytown, Anytime

Silk of girlhood adolescence, womanhood
raw thread snapped he was the one who had tied
the, rakhi, run his fingers on
the linea negra while she was still
in her mother’s womb
the only safe place

to awake why does she think of chess? cornered
straddled pinned, trapped, drugged, addled
by a huge and heavy staleness, a toxic maleness
unable to move
the corpulent assaulter
on top of her, behind, beside, inside
one hand stuffing
a kerchief in her mouth and the other others
holding her down while stabbing
bulbous penis, malignant root, digging in took a section of pipe
call a spade a spade
and not edible pawnography
blood,
where
copious, ephemeral, indelible everywhere her insides, were

terrified and still
unable to move, she stares
up into the high Victorian ceilings spilling
with their dark ominous beams
All the while
the clink, clink, clink
of water dripping
in the metal bucket
behind the bathroom door
After wards,( gauze, iodine, sedative) she finds

words, too have power to rearrange the pieces
sutra, the cotton from which suture spun
turning the wheel she will be queen again.