Bazaar Sketches

Ronnie was the tiny kid
who would stare at the sweetmeats
on display in the bakery,
but his mother Rachel, who had diabetes,
wouldn’t let him eat any of them,
punishing him for her illness.

Raju was the young man
from the unnamable city somewhere
in the north-east, and he would mix
and beat the tea, letting it fall
from one cup to another from what
the kids would say the height
of Niagara Falls. If someone asked him
about the exact state from which
he migrated here for work,
or try to guess the origins from his accent,
he’d stop talking altogether,
focusing more on the stains
on his wiry hands and the tea cups.

The juice and pan shop would
always have the same dirt
and nameless youngsters around it,
well-avoided by serious people
who’re better occupied,
with better places to go, like schools,
colleges, offices, parks, cinemas,
malls, and then a home
with clean rooms to get back to,
even before all the lights
of the Bazaar were switched off,
one by one, leaving some nowhere.

Jose Varghese is a bilingual writer and translator from India. His short story manuscript In/Sane was a finalist in the 2018 Beverly International Prize. He was a finalist twice in the London Independent Story Prize (LISP), a runner up in the Salt Prize, and was commended in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize. He is published in Litro, Nine Arches Press, The Bookends Review, Burningwords, Dreich, Haunted Waters, Wild Roof, Cathexis Northwest, The Best Asian Short Story Anthology, Chariot Press, Meridian – The APWT Drunken Boat Anthology, Chandrabhaga, Unthology 5, Unveiled, Reflex Fiction, Retreat West, and Flash Fiction Magazine.