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Subway India

Michael Lee Johnson


Every two to three miles
you’re in India again-
in another subway store
in a back room and you will
find a recent family camping out there
faking fraud visas doing final touch up
on work permits and
figuring out how to avoid taxes;
or get the next boat load over
to start a new store.
$650 worth of retail sales a day
feeds a family of six for a week.
Incense ruminate and permeate
over and over again, creep out as
silk smoke to the front counter area,
merges into my spicy Italian sandwich.
Daily they work, waiting for work or life to end.
They ship back the lifeless bodies
to India to float freely in the Ganges River
intertwined in memories, hopes, and fears.
Relatives congregate on it banks, bathe,
place the body on a wooden float, pull
twigs and river grass from the river bank,
light the fire, incinerate the charcoal,
float the body, toss remnants into the river,
turn faces down and walk away.
The Ganges is a sacred cesspool.
Back at the subway store
a new day begins.
A time tested ritual continues.

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