BRAIDS by Krisha Wignarajah

CONTENTS

It is raining...

Braids

Birds have wings...

Flies buzz...

It is evening...

Grade Two

I go home...

Wellawatta Outdoor Bazaar

Curfew

Amappa's Eyes

Islands

I reached out...

Evening Walk

Awakening shadow...

The Flight

A Robin's Bath

The Heron and the Swan

War on a Mango

Tea with Dadda

Granite Stone

Sigh with the wind...

Today, I have gone back...

About the Poet

Acknowledgements

Chapbook Home

Friday Circle Home

Braids

by Krisha Wignarajah

It is evening and the curfew is in force. Everything is silent — even the wind and the waves. We sit quietly until it is time to go to sleep.

The verandah doors are latched closed. The soft tap of a policeman's heel is heard outside our gate. Everything is that silent. We talk in whispers. Not even our voices must be out on the street. Only the dining room is lit as we sit in the living room in the dark. I cringe from my skin. The grandfather clock has been stopped for the night — no sound. Aunty says it is 9 o'clock and time to go to bed.