Like each year, Maryann is soaking raisins
in brandy for Christmas cake,
her first without her father.

If yesterday, too, like our rescue,
could perk its ears, be stopped
by our call of sit. Stay.

Some days the wind is so chilly
it rearranges our bones.
The wind is faultless, memoryless.

The pup hooks his jaw to the kitchen
counter, makes his eyes bigger.
If I toss him a raisin, I could

quell his long squeal. Tell
Maryann I know just how you feel,
but I know nothing of grief
that can soften by likening.

—

Preeti Vangani is a poet and writer from Mumbai, writing and teaching in the Bay Area. She is the author of Mother Tongue Apologize (2019), winner of the RL India Poetry Prize. Her work has been published in The Threepenny Review, Gulf Coast, Cortland Review, among other places. A graduate of University of San Francisco’s MFA Program, Preeti has received fellowships and support from UCross, Tin House, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and the California Center for Cultural Innovation. She has taught with Youth Speaks and at the MFA (Writing) program at University of San Francisco.