Inheritance

Inheritance

1945, Bijnor, a man went door to door with
a basket of leeches. He never shouted his arrival
like the ice-candy man calling Ice !
Instead, the basket came unannounced, he’d
set it down when the door opened, Is there
illness in the house? My father was five,
his mother had a fever, it was too early
to know she was dying.
While four sons crouched behind her, the lid
was raised, flat bodies scuttled. One was lifted,
the head a translucent valve, with what
my father thought were very tiny teeth
it bit her arm and fell when it was full.
It made the sound of