Holly Bodger

...you see what you wantand you want what you see,but if I have anything to say about it, that willnever beme.

We're told to plug our nosesto escape the smells. Manure.Rot.Poverty?Reality.

My words are like Mummy: butterflies trapped inside a net.

The president is not at all like the powerful icon I imagined her to be. She__ more like I remember Amma: small and delicate with a sari that dances behind her as she walks. Of course, the president is clad in white, the color that shows eternal mourning of a lost child, while Amma never wore white. She wore reds and oranges and deep greens. Colors of celebration, of happiness. Perhaps she wears white now. Now that I am dead to her.

Have to wait my turn.Have to follow the rules.Have to smile like I agree.Have toHave toHave toHave toChoose him.

Nani__ allegiance is to her angerandangerruns deeper than blood and skin.It__ set in boneand bone, once broken,neverheals the same.