Hear Indran Amirthanayagam read at the upcoming E-Verse Equinox Reading Series event, Tuesday, September 22nd. Click here for more information.

The season of avocados
is over. The most beautiful
girl in town is about to marry
a man across the water.

My brother is busy
with his manuscript.
Time to share ideas
in a book has gone

to the country without
a hat. Accept reality.
Don’t live anymore
in fantasy.

You are getting along
in years but are only
two in creole. You have
a great long life ahead.

Think. Reflect. Tell
all the new families
Congratulations
Good luck. Then

Write again about
your life in Haiti
when the avocado
was in bloom.

Indran Amirthanayagam, (Sri Lanka/United States) (www.indranmx.com) writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. He has published nineteen poetry collections and recorded a spoken word album Rankont Dout. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly. He is a curator of the literary platform http://www.ablucionistas.com. He has won the Paterson Poetry Prize. His new books are The Migrant States, Sur l’île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris, 2020), and Lírica a Tiempo (Editorial Mesa Redonda, Lima, 2020). Signed copies of these new books are available from the author. Contact: indranmx@gmail.com.  Twitter: @indranmx.  Instagram: @Indran1960. Facebook: Indran Amirthanayagam