Hand-Me-Down | Simran Ahira

The woman with the dented nose

Leaves her voice hung in my head

On a wooden hanger

It’s so soft and heavy

It keeps falling off

Into the pile of mess beneath

She keeps coming back and hanging it up again

And asks me to be careful with it

When the light catches the material in a certain way

In the late evenings

After I’ve had a bit to drink

Or too much time to think

I cry

And cry and cry

And I reach inside of myself

And pull her voice

Off of the hanger

And I wear her words

Around the apartment.