AKAL MOHAN

An After Kiss

the day my life ends, there is a ring around the

sun. it glimmers; its light catching the smoke

from our kitchen. my mother’s ugali breaks in

the middle. the steam rising draws my face &

that of Christ. in her eulogy, mum says she

saw me flaunting the gap on my upper jaw.

“he smiled, wide, than ever before”. her

breasts cave in, then out, and her sister (my

aunt) wipes tears from her eyes. a poet once

asked: do we die in death too? does the end ever start

us on another life? which world begins when we cross

over? days later, as a dead-living, i come back

to them for nothing but a kiss. a kiss on my

forehead is all i want. it’s a ritual, and as JM

Coetzee says: rituals make life easy. i need the

salts from their sweat to burn away worms

Akal Mohan is a Kenyan writer and editor. He edits at Ubwali Literary Magazine- a literary magazine from Zambia.