Today’s New Verse News: FINAL RESTING PLACE
by Kashiana Singh
An American dream turned nightmare: Four members of a Sikh family in California kidnapped and killed. —CNN, 6 October 2022
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Merced County, California
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harvested ground, haze of vijay dashmi lingering, skull smashing night of rakshasa's ten heads, family of four, found. tossed. taken. sweet daughter of god, Aroohi nestled asleep, an orchard of almonds her bed, maggots swimming in a baby’s gourmand breath a nip in California air, draped them as complicit as a shroud of velvet cases on edible nuts a blush ash on their eyelids at home, a bowl of blessed parshad is untouched, effigies of the demon king ablaze, shrouds of starlings depart, crowning at the feet of a mother, wailing fists on breast, a lamenting hum rises, a rasp from her throat a paddock of grief ruptured erasing the monsters of distant love father, eyes jittery like locusts hands peeling the skins of five blanched almonds, organic raw california grown, new day breaks into night, a kite across an ocean of fairytales, heavy footed he steps forward, to bring cadavers back
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Kashiana Singh strives to embody the essence of her TEDx talk—Work as Worship into her everyday. Her newest full-length collection Woman by the Door was released in 2022 with Apprentice House Press. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills with Yavanika Press is a loco descriptive journey through 10 cities. Kashiana lives in North Carolina and carries her various geopolitical homes within her poetry.