Guest Appearance by Reena R

A ringtone makes its way through the open window

Music is forbidden here

Death is the guest tonight

There is uninvited chatter too

which rises to a crescendo

disappearing when the woman on the bed moves

She is helped up and leans heavily

on the bed frame

No one offers her a cushion

The blow is meant to hurt

They offer her rice gruel which she declines

though her lips are parched by a salty rain

Footsteps echo and stop at the door

Stares enter without permission

Both stop short at her sigh

embarrassed by the untidy spectacle of death

She outlines the dying scene to anyone who dares

to ask

with fewer details each time

for she sees boredom settle upon the mourners

Through the window she can see

the ground being cleared of the bushes he planted last month

His favorite was just sprouting leaves

They put heavy logs where he had planted seeds

She wondered what he would have done

if it had been the day before

Yelled at the perpetrators and danced in fury perhaps

The visual made her smile

Its memory would later make her cry

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Reena R is a poet/writer from India, currently living in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). Her poems have been published in several anthologies and journals. She is the Destiny Poets UK's Poet of the year for 2014 and one of the editors of The Significant Anthology released in July 2015. She won awards at ‘World Union Of Poet’s’ poetry competition, 2016 and at "As You Like It International Poetry Contest’. She won the Reuel International Prize for poetry, 2018.