KILLING REVA RAMANI

A half empty, uncolored, isosceles bottle of Chanel

Five long black hair strands on a monogrammed towel

Two cranberry lipstick stains on a bone-china teacup

Three gem-sized bindis across the bathroom mirror

A few black bras and a couple of shoes in the closet

An out of focus photo under the refrigerator magnet

One unfinished poem on the shelf but no leaving notes

Some saved letters, four staring walls and an empty pillow

Aniruddha dragged these things, one by one, into the hall

Going through each room, systematically

Then he looked at the pile he'd made with disdain and nostalgia

These were some of the things he still had left of Reva

Eventually, he set fire to everything

Even the silence and the memories

They all burnt away for good

With the Norwegian wood

Strangely the fire reminded him of both marriages and cremations

Miles and miles of bedroom fights but also some intimate jubilations

But after thirty five minutes and sixteen seconds,

As 1883, Landsdowne Road was falling apart;

That was when he had first started screaming

But she had left nothing behind