Ghost Stories

After all

I’ve known the complete truth

Many times

Faster than Buddha, Krishna

Without Bodhi tree, warzone of Mahabharata

My feet were steady

After every quake in Kathmandu

Huts in Janakpur floated in floods

I was dry

Girls with my skin tangled in ropes, singed in flames

I tied my shoelaces to tread on foreign land

When ballpoint pen tremors

God knows about my pile of wisdom

And asks if I am still decorating my body on loan

Mother’s eyes are tired, father’s blurred

I lie to them over the phone

Again

Nothing will happen to us

The shield of illusion and reality are interchangeable

I retell stories to ghosts

And ask for liberation

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Anuja Ghimire was born in Kathmandu, Nepal and came to the U.S. as a college student. She has been writing since she was 5. She is the author of two poetry books published in Nepali (age 15 and 17) and Kathmandu from the Unsolicited Press (Sep. 2020). Some of her works found home in Finished Creatures (England), Orbis (England), Glass: A journal of Poetry, the Anthology of Asian American Women Writers, Crack the Spine, UCity Review. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she reads poetry for Up the Staircase Quarterly. She lives in Bedford, TX with her husband and two children.