Human Connections

By Asrand Etanbol

Focused on the varying ways we humans connect with each other and with the world around us, Human Connections is a collection of emotionally charged and introspective works that explore themes of pain, healing, and personal growth through specific events that occur in a multi-cultural household. The poetry depicts different ways we choo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asrand Etanbol
• Release date: May 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088155790

Book preview

1

How It Started

One of Nine

It’s easy to get lost in the mix,

So when the police knocked on the door and asked

Did your father do anything wrong?

She turned them away.

He would make sure she was fed and full

before her other hungry siblings.

He would watch her favorite movie with her

until they could recite the lines word for word.

He would be able to tell her apart from her twin sister

when no one else could.

He had been the best father to her,

But only her

She would tell the police

he had been innocent of his crimes

whenever they trudged up the steps to the doorway.

She would cover her ears as if the bathroom tiles

didn’t amplify her sister’s screams.

She would lie to her mother that she didn’t know

why her infant niece went to the hospital.

She would move to another country so her daughter

couldn’t become his next victim.

She would beg her family to forgive him simply because,

He never did anything wrong to her.

The Different Costs of the American Dream

It cost my father a 20 hour plane ride

to visit his sisters in America,