SHOCK AND STOICISM
A doctor in tailcoats
Makes a house call.
He straps her ankles,
Shoves a buffer in her mouth.
Her husband kisses her eyes closed,
Pins down her fleshy arms.
The doctor pads her temples,
Inserts wires into a black box.
Bulbs flicker as he smoothes
Moonlight back in her throat.
Doctor unplugs his machine.
A boy with birthmark on forehead
Tiptoes to his mother’s bed
Where she calmly asks my name.
by Rafiq Kathwari, the first non-Irish winner of the Patrick Kavanagh 2013 Poetry Award, representing Ireland Literature Exchange at the Hyderabad Literary Festival January 23-25, 2014.