Day 4

My ajjol didn't live with paintings
They lived with memories
portraits
of their parents
commissioned at great personal cost
hung up on the living room wall
Garlanded

My ajja and ammama lived
cheerful hard lives
in a house with 40 people
8 portraits garlanded and memoried
on walls of lime green and on top of
floors of red oxide and in the
darkest corner, graced with wood from the
tall jackfruit, teak, and mango
was a treasury and a shrine
filled with jewelry, hope, idols, and the
bright blue, pink, and gold foil pictures of
87 deities

Today, only 5 people live there
but the gods and the spiders
keep me company