Natasha Kochicheril Moni: Not Unlike Heathcliff

Not Unlike Heathcliff

You tell me the Kelly door is open

and I wonder who is Kelly?

There are truths below truths above

this. I believe the one about the horse

you—five—and no one conceived

a mare might raise

a hoof to lobe—frontal—a text

book kick is always in the rear.

Here, your cupboards are sealed with chop

sticks, your dresser contains slip

covers—five—identical for the love

seat you keep cappuccino.

You bring citrus to your kitchen, forget

the lemon tree full in your side

yard. There is a story of a boy

whose ears were stitched on at birth.

There is a wind forever

howling in this canyon.

If there is a woman

—imagined—

offer her nothing

but champagne. 

If there is a door

named after someone

you have yet to meet

remember to unlatch the windows.

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Natasha Kochicheril Moni, a first-generation American born to native Dutch and Indian parents, is a writer and a naturopathic doctor in WA State. In 2014, Natasha's first full-length poetry collection, The Cardiologist's Daughter, was published by Two Sylvias Press. Her poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews have been published in over fifty-five journals including: Entropy, The Rumpus, Magma, Verse, DIAGRAM, Hobart, Indiana Review, and Fourteen Hills. Thrice nominated for Best of the Net (finalist in 2009) as well as Best of the Web, Natasha's poetry has been a finalist in the Vincent Chin Memorial Prize (Kundiman) as well as a semifinalist in Crab Orchard Review, several Black Lawrence Press, and other competitions. Her chapbook, Lay Down Your Fleece, is forthcoming from Shirt Pocket Press. http://www.natashamoni.com/