Debts
I owe so many.
And they've become overweight.
I can't carry them any longer.
Whenever I returned home
In the dead of midnight,
The debt I owe mother,
Who waited up without eating.
When I lay in drunken stupor at the wayside,
The obligation I owe the mongrel
Who licked away sweat from my flyblown face.
The due I owe the neighborhood
For not beating me black and blue
For the peeks I took as she bathed
When Memchoubi was a virgin.
And although I spent the night at Chandramikhi's
The burden I owe my wife
When she pretended that she didn't know
Even as I lied.
The debt I owe to my son
For simply yielding to my deceit
Because it wasn't enough for a bottle
When he longed for a toy train.
And when I returned
After a long spell,
The debt I owe
The fields and hills I'd forgotten
For telling me I've reached home.
How will I pay my debts to all
For loving me in excess?
Mulling over this, I'm also searching
For a deep rooted tree
To crucify myself.
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