I’m a death baby by Debasis Mukhopadhyay

After Anne Sexton

 ..

Hand me those marbles

Rolling down the map

Travelling back home

I can’t go home, back

I can’t leave home

I’m a death baby

I rock and rock

I’m all about the sea

No birds fell out of barrel bombs

No tomorrows pinned to the fence

Now I’m good enough to take root

Sleeping with bellyful of sea

Back home, I was a doll

Who would sleep like a doll

Merely deserved to be so

If you are here

Rock me

Penny for your thoughts, papa

I’m not a bird that flies

I lie low and heavy

A death baby

Previously published in 

Thirteen Myna Birds (October 2015).

Thirteen Myna Birds

My blog link: 

debasis mukhopadhyay