Girl Country

Ansley Moon

“Of the 11 million abandoned children, 90% are girls.”
—Times of India

abandon: verb

in Hindi: Chōra dēnā

1. to cease support or look after (someone); desert

Indian woman delivers,
abandons baby in plane toilet. 2010

“More than half of India’s billion-plus
population is below age 25.”

2. give up completely

Seven-day-old baby girl left
abandoned in hospital. 2012

“In India, one in six girls
does not live to see her fifteenth
birthday.”

3. (abandon oneself to) allow oneself to indulge in (a desire or impulse)

Father abandons
baby girl on train. 2012.

“India is a dangerous place
to be a woman.”

The Arrangement

On the mango tree, barely above the lovers’ initials, you mark the months of the baby.
Sometimes you still her hunger with sweetened water, other times your finger.

Your father visits with a Sikh man. A brand new suitor. He waves the baby girl away, instead asks after the boy and practices numbers with him. Remarks on his fortitude and intelligent eyes.

On the way back from the lavatory, you overhear the man tell your father that he will take you and the boy but not the girl.

Ansley Moon

2015

Field Studies or The Floating Poem

Field. Filed. Fled.
This is a field of tiny bones, all girls.
Beyond the field is a small pond/river/body of water. Where the mothers take the bonegirls & return alone.
There is an art to drowning.
A field is an open expanse of land—a grave.
First you must submerge the body. Best if head underwater.
A river—a bed of sediment, water & death.

Ansley Moon

2016

Poems

Girl Country

More by this poet

The Arrangement

Field Studies or The Floating Poem

Poems

Page submenu block

Girl Country

More by this poet

The Arrangement

Field Studies or The Floating Poem

Newsletter Sign Up