Monday, October 10, 2022

FINAL RESTING PLACE

by Kashiana Singh


An American dream turned nightmare: Four members of a Sikh family in California kidnapped and killed. —CNN, 6 October 2022


Merced County, California


harvested ground, haze of vijay dashmi

            lingering, skull smashing night

            of rakshasa's ten heads, family

            of four, found. tossed. taken. 

sweet daughter of god, Aroohi nestled

asleep, an orchard of almonds

her bed, maggots swimming 

in a baby’s gourmand breath

a nip in California air, draped them

            as complicit as a shroud of

velvet cases on edible nuts

            a blush ash on their eyelids

at home, a bowl of blessed parshad

            is untouched, effigies of the

            demon king ablaze, shrouds

            of starlings depart, crowning

at the feet of a mother, wailing fists

            on breast, a lamenting hum

rises, a rasp from her throat

a paddock of grief ruptured

erasing the monsters of distant love

            father, eyes jittery like locusts

hands peeling the skins of five

blanched almonds, organic raw 

california grown, new day breaks into

            night, a kite across an ocean of

            fairytales, heavy footed he steps

            forward, to bring cadavers back



Kashiana Singh strives to embody the essence of her TEDx talk—Work as Worship into her everyday. Her newest full-length collection Woman by the Door was released in 2022 with Apprentice House Press. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills with Yavanika Press is a loco descriptive journey through 10 cities. Kashiana lives in North Carolina and carries her various geopolitical homes within her poetry.