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A Last History of Isako

By Mia Ayumi Malhotra
Poetry•Vol. XXIX No. 2 (Summer 2016)

Isako is lady with split shears under bed in case of emergency. Is lady knot red wool through
thumb bow. Is lady grip ride and shank fist thrust into dark cutting edge first.

Is still. Is viscera.

pressed into body. Is waiting.

Is time. Is breath grated against teeth like heavy object dragged over

chain link. Is jaw wrenched open.

Isako is lady. Is not. Is Toyo is Lois is Nellie is Shigeko is

Is body. Is passed through incinerator in cardboard box. Is witnessed by son who waits until flames are through.

Is lady. Is ash. Is air. Is feet in memory is skin is.

Mia Ayumi Malhotra
Mia Ayumi Malhotra is a Kundiman and VONA/Voices Fellow, and her poems have appeared in Greensboro Review, Mid-American Review, Drunken Boat, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. She is the associate editor of Lantern Review and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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