Two Moths

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

                                                Some girls          on the other side of this planet                                                            will never know                        the loveliness                                                of walking       in a crepe silk sari.           Instead                               they will spend                  their days                                       on their backs                                    for a parade of men                     who could be                       their uncles                                        in another life.            These girls memorize                                                        each slight wobble            of fan blade as it cuts                                            through the stale     tea air and auto-rickshaw                                                        exhaust            thick as egg curry.                                Men        shove greasy rupees            at the door                                                            for one hour           in a room                                        with a twelve-year old.                    One hour—         One hour—                                                One hour.                        And if she cries afterward                                  her older sister          will cover it up.           Will rim                                             the waterline              of her eyes                     with kohl pencil                                                      until it looks like                      two popinjay moths                                                                    have stopped     to rest         on her exquisite        face.

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Photo of Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of four poetry and two essay collections, most recently, Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees. She lives and teaches in Oxford, Mississippi.

Cover of Come Shining

Port Townsend, Washington

Brimming with moments of recollection and reconnection, Come Shining: More Poems and Stories from Fifty Years of Copper Canyon Press is a testament to a half century of publishing and poetic vitality. A companion to our fiftieth anniversary anthology, A House Called Tomorrow, this collection highlights nearly one hundred poems pulled from well-loved Copper Canyon books. Poems, introduced with stories from the readers who recommended them, sit alongside occasional gifts of handwritten notes and historic photographs... Come Shining flashes with intimate insights about poetry’s power—to awaken our love for language, to guide us through momentous change, to engage our imaginations and intellects in the communal act of reading.

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