I soak my brown body

in a Victorian porcelain bathtub

in a hundred-year-old house

I add a few drops of lavender 

And hope it will remove the odour of coriander

I think of my mother

She would say-

তুই তো ভালোই আছিস

as if I shouldn’t be

Is this what they called my জীবন became a life?

Having Sahana Bajpaie in the background

while reading Roxane Gay?

It is snowing outside

But a bright sunlight shines through the big glass window

And bathes my brown body

I think of myজীবন

I crossed ocean 

And it turned into a life

as if it wasn’t one