walks out of the house, walks into a ditch,
disappears. inside, he grows into my father.
he is muddy. dirt crawls on his body.
he wakes up at dawn and draws water from the well,
shivers,
sits on his father’s bicycle, delivering newspapers through the january fog.
boils two eggs on an open fire, slices them with a thread.
smoke covers the boy’s trachea.
the boy feeds his five siblings.
he is sent to the boy scout camp.
learns how to be a wife.
the boy’s mother leaves for the city.
the boy paints sets for onkiya naat. becomes the narrator. plays a woman.
sits with his dying aunt through the entire night.
terrified of touch, he lets his aunt hold his hand.
he cycles through the graveyard at midnight.
wakes up the only doctor in three villages.
the boy’s aunt does not make it through the night.
the boy doesn’t believe in worship
the boy is belted
the boy stops growing
the boy walks out of the ditch.
