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peach to phantom - by Neya Krishnan
Peach to Phantom
by Neya Krishnan
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CW: domestic violence
Mom puts down the phone
and fury shovels
a mean hole
into the crease of her eyes.
It’s the fourth call this week
from a best friend
whose mother
refuses to leave
a husband
that beats her
into shards of sub mi ssi on.
The best friend’s mother is a soft peach
and every night she buckles
against the weight of her husband’s
belt buckle;
her breasts are branded
with bruises and surgical-looking cuts
as if he has mastered the profession
of scarring beyond
the point of redemption.
The woman turns from peach to phantom.
“Why?”
“Why won’t she leave?”
mom’s best friend pleads.
If she left that hostile hostel
why can’t her mother?
But if only she knew
about the heirloom
her grandmother
passed to her mother
on the day she wed her husband,
“be tender child, a woman is to always be tender”
like tenderness
is a thing to be beaten.
