the report is not printed yet.
there is no need for ultrasound.
baba is not diagnosed with cancer.
his hair is uncut. i am re-writing
his life. no debts. no fights.
the hands of the clock run backwards.
he doesn’t grow up in a house
made of sacrifices. he wears the winter
slippers i bought for him. this time there is love.
i am home for maghe sankranti and i am not
on my period. this time i make ladoos.
sticky hands and the smell of teel.
hajurama doesn’t say we need to follow
the puraan. aama doesn’t say i should be
in law school because i don’t argue.
not today.
baba’s sons unwrite the letters
in their school.
the letters are not neatly arranged
in baba’s files. he un-meets hajurama.
he sees without glasses.
he is sixteen years old.
he is riding a white horse.
his skin is unwrinkled.
his birth is no more an accident.