Response Poem 1 : Pallavi Verma

                               Part of my grandmother’s dowry

On her wedding day,
a gold nose ring
pinned in her nose.

Nine rupees gold ring
she never took it out
too expensive to lose

Now, it's stuck forever
It will never come out
stubborn ring froze

Part of her dowry
still hangs in
her stretched earlobes

Silver kadi in her legs
leaf-like pendant in
black thread, she shows  

After she dies,
to all the granddaughters
her wedding dowry goes

On her cremation, with her flesh burning, she wantts
her nose ring still glows

Note: In response to "The Dacca Guazes"