This selection is included in NonBinary Review #6, available here.

It’s a voluntary widowhood.
Whipped by Neeli’s tongue,
he’s gone to harvest Dirhams*
in Dubai desert — lest the embryo
of their new home won’t grow up.
She’s alone in a temporary shed
behind the basement on the bank.

Indian Postman passes by like her
days flashing ‘No’ with his fingers.
She looks into the distant desert
through the window of nostalgia.
Fear creeps on the walls of her
heart at night — even a Norway rat
becomes a ghost rattling in kitchen.

Years slip into the chasm of past
leaving behind the doldrums on her
countenance. Time partitions her
basement — mongooses, bandicoots
and rats get their shares — holes and
chinks. Now her dreams with streaks
of love have shrunk like her womb.

Fabiyas M V is a writer from Orumanayur village in India. He is the author of Moonlight and Solitude. His fiction and poems have appeared in Westerly, Forward Poetry, Literary The Hatchet, E Fiction, Structo, and in several anthologies. He won many international accolades including the Poetry Soup International Award, USA, and the RSPCA Pet Poetry Prize, UK. His poems have been broadcast on All India Radio.