Arpita Roy

Thrift Store

Rob suggests we buy a baseball bat
to replace the long knife I keep
under my pillow. We bring home
a grey old thing, atop which,
akin to a knife, light still rushes
upon touch. When we retell this story,
it is a testament to our small love.

How since, he has wanted to swing it
in our backyard, at the thick bark
of the maple tree and have an audience
of squirrels watch his sport.
How he hasn’t. How since, I have
taken the long knife from under my pillow
and hidden it by my desk.

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Arpita Roy is a Creative Writing PhD candidate at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she is a Poetry Editor for Witness. Arpita has received awards from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Vermont Studio Center, Kenyon Review and Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. Her work can be found in THRUSH, Cream City Review, Couplet Poetry, X-Ray, Autofocus and Psaltery & Lyre. Arpita is from Kolkata, India.