Rahana K. Ismail

Grandmother?

Her chilies and cherry tomatoes don’t grow this year. Her Amaranth leaves close before they open veins. Curry leaves grow moth larvae, spent in two hungry days. It’s just the bean vines which grow and grow and grow, clawing on discarded golf sticks, clambering onto the rusting tricycle handle and still don’t sprout beans.

rusted air—
old moccasins
in her prayers

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About the Author

Rahana K Ismail is a poet and a doctor from Calicut, Kerala. Her work has been featured or forthcoming in nether Quarterly, Usawa Literary Review, Verse of Silence, EKL Review, the Chakkar, Alipore Post, Pine Cone Review, and elsewhere.