1.

My earliest memory is letting go of a white ceramic mug (the kind favored by wedding caterers in India in the eighties) and watching it fall one story to crash on the cement floor of the family that lived below us. I remember being aware that I was only a child and would not be held responsible.

2.

the first marriage always breaks—

expose the fault line, glut the fracture with gold

lacquer from lac, from Sanskrit

meaning many, or resin

secreted sap or gum

gham from Urdu

meaning sorrow

like grief

chin meets floor

the jaw unsettles

skin meets chin—

splits—

the seam shimmers

to gilded fractal

bowl meets floor

the mind unclenches

the whole

the pattern holds

where does it

hurt    here

the shatter

here,

        here