Kashaf Ghumman – The Sorrow in My Genes – 4

 by Kashaf Ghumman

The Sorrow in My Genes

in my family pain does not skip generations
it presents itself in the tremors the headaches the shallow sleeps
and sometimes you see it in the creases on our hands
there are too many small cuts there
and we ignore them
till my mother places her hands next to mine and her mother places them next to hers
and we find that they are all the same
small cuts cutting through every crease
we trace them near our eyes and our mouths too
and we hold each other’s faces and cryat least we know we know
and when we visit my grandmother’s grave my mother and I hold her hands again
and we know

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Kashaf Ghumman is a medical student from Pakistan, trying to learn the rhythms of the medical field while studying the anatomy of poetry. She has previously been published in the Shot Glass Journal by Muse Pie Press, Recenter Press and Glintmoon.