Postcards from India, in no particular order

I still wash rice three times,

In Jaipur, a monkey stole my breakfast.

The tap water pours over the white grains,

milky trails circling the drain.

.

After the fever in Varanasi even the river smelled holy:

incense,

diesel,

rain.

*

On the first night in Delhi,

I thought I had made a mistake.

*

POSTCARD iv. Train ride to Agra

The train rattled down the rusted rails.

A dust cloud appeared outside the window—

wild elephants running through sun-burnt fields,

peacocks spotting the landscape like jewels in the heat.

.

While I queue for the train toilet—

a hole in the ground—

the rails run beneath us

like a feral animal.

.

I still cannot drink cardamom tea

without hearing train horns.

*

POSTCARD ii.

At dawn the cows slept

curled beneath the temple steps,

while barefoot women washed off yesterday

from the stones.

*

POSTCARD xii. Something beautiful and human

I met her on the streets by the river,

she took me to a vendor

selling aloo phujia glowing red with tomato,

cooked on a stove built on a bicycle.

.

A Chinese girl named Ariel.

I followed her around Rishikesh

like a second shadow.

.

I still tear up

when I remember her saying I was beautiful.

*

POSTCARD xxiii.

We lay on the bed in our couch surfing home for the night. A white gecko watches me from above, feet pinned to the ceiling. I know better than to question that he's almost glued there. Biology class, 12th grade: adhesion, molecular attraction, survival. And still, I pray for every Hindu god I couldn't name for gravity not to betray him. I'm already sharing my bed with a stranger, I don't need him to fall between us. Then a cockroach flew across the room. My soul nearly followed it.

*

A forgotten note in a guide book:

a little brown ball.

.

I didn't kick it—how could I know

it was elephant shit

*

I went to Humayun’s Tomb

carrying bottled water like an extension of myself.

By sunset

my stomach had already surrendered.

*

The little boy in Pushkar asks where I’m from.

Months later,

back in Europe,

I forget how to answer.