When He Left The House Quietly – Michigan Quarterly Review
photo of a brown building with air conditioning units on the patio of quite a few apartment

When He Left The House Quietly

Hit play below to hear Viplav Saini read his poem “When He Left The House Quietly” and scroll down for the full text. “When He Left The House Quietly is featured in MQR’s Summer 2020 issue.

When He Left The House Quietly

maybe your father walked to the bus stand; maybe he rode buses
all night, watching Delhi
put out its fires, smoke a last cigarette, then exhale hard,
and sigh to sleep around three.
Maybe near five he had tea by the roadside
—the buildings under construction
asleep in the sky—then used the toilet
at a temple nearby. We know that next,
at an apartment complex in East Delhi, he asked
the guard to be let in:
“I just want to drink some water.”
The man, unsure, made calculations
of time and place, and caste and class—
your father passed. He probably took
the lift to the fourteenth floor
and by the railing in the corridor
must have considered
the ground below. He must have seen
the city begin to stir, if not entirely awaken
—the smoke from the slum stoves,
the car horns and crows
clearing their throats, the air filling
with hesitant sound...

your father, still, considering the ground.
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