Sweet Child - A Poem by Ayida Shonibar

This poem is from the December 2023 issue of Worlds of Possibility. The ebook of the entire issue is available to download for free as an end of the year gift here: https://www.juliarios.com/the-december-2023-issue-of-worlds-of-possibility/

Sweet Child
by Ayida Shonibar

when something breaks
your heart and consumes you
with bitterness, you’ll find yourself
stumbling into my shop of sweet mishti
that was definitely not there
in the middle of your road
the day before

you’ll smell it first, lured
by the scent of rose, golap from
the soft pink shondesh, which
I’ll offer if you’ve received
disappointing news that you
need help to chew on before you
can stomach it, a swallow of
creamy sugar to coat the barbs, to
help it go down

and if the pain has already festered
into something more rotten, then
take a roshogolla, paneer like fresh
white clouds I gathered lovingly
in muslin and soaked in a syrup of spices
that will flood your mouth, heal the hurt
that turns your tongue sour when
you speak to your friends and
seasons your attitude with saltiness
in response to your family’s questions,
because your loneliness will
only sting worse

but if you’ve already fallen apart, then
let me fold you back together with
layers of flaky dough, tuck your
shattered pieces into the cushion of
milky filling at the centre, seal you up
using the same stick of clove
my grandmother repaired me with
after I thought she’d left me
behind, until she appeared in
a magical sweet shop
in the middle of my street on
the other side of the world to
give me your favourite, her lobongo
lotika, and a promise of affection
eternal, passed from her ancestors to
mine, and from me to
you, sweet child

About the Author

Ayida Shonibar (she/they) grew up as an Indian-Bengali immigrant to Europe and currently works in North America. Their writing has been featured in Nature Futures, Wilted Pages (Shortwave Publishing), Luminescent Machinations (Neon Hemlock), Asian Ghost Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing), Transmogrify! (Harper Teen), and Night of the Living Queers (Wednesday Books), among others. You can find more information about their speculative fiction featuring misfits, monsters and mischief-makers at ayidashonibar.com.