Blood On My Hand
Blood On My Hand
The first summer of our love
Came with heavy monsoons.
I was learning to cook for you,
And cut my finger
With the kitchen knife,
Because you were secretly
Blowing kisses to me
Behind your mother’s back.
It was such a small wound,
But there was blood on my hand.
You froze in the hall,
And stared at the blood
Oozing lazily out of the broken skin.
There was horror on your face
As if the flood outside
Was not catastrophic enough.
Remember?
You rushed to the street
Abandoned all intelligence,
And waded into the water,
Ran to the corner convenience store,
And bought a pack of Band-Aids.
You treated the wound
Like it would kill me,
And the blood was already
Almost gone.
It was only a small cut,
And the act of putting
Some antiseptic tape on it –
And how you did it with worry
In your eyes,
Your clothes soaking wet,
Your hair over one eye,
Your nose pinched in concentration.
We sat on the porch,
I watched the rain
And you bandaged my finger.
That first summer of our love.
I cut my finger with the kitchen knife today
Because I was juggling a phone
And cutting eggplant for dinner.
It was a deep wound
And there was blood on my hand.
I screamed in frustration;
Not for my pain,
But for the dinner that I was
Preparing for you.
Honey, can you get me some bandage?
I cut my hand, I said.
You flipped through a channel.
Where were you looking?
Be careful with these things –
You are worse than the kids, you said.
It’s in the bathroom,
Can you get it please? I said.
Oh, put away the eggplant,
I don’t like it anyway,
We’ll go out for dinner, you said.
I dumped dinner in the garbage,
And went to the bathroom.
Sitting on the edge of the cold bathtub,
I cleaned the cut and bandaged it.
Then we all went to House of Chang.
You never asked about the cut on my finger.
It is healing now, without you.
Simple and yet heartfelt. Melikes!
another nice smooth flowing narrative. I agree with Hasnain, simple and heartfelt
Awesome!
I love your simplicity in your poems. It’s truely amazing how you’ve managed to make a contrast, which appeares due to time. Time is funny… it changes so much.
Good stuff. What more can I say?
9.5/10