Midnight's Children

I was born at the stroke of midnight and the country arrived with me. Handcuffed destinies.

The telepathy conference in his head, a nation's children meeting in one skull.

Padma the listener keeps the story honest. Every narrator needs one stubborn reader.

The perfumes of Jamila Singer's voice. Nostalgia described by its nose.

Shiva the knees, Saleem the nose. Heroes measured in body parts, perfectly.

The Widow's fingers on the nation. Rushdie wrote Emergency before most noticed it.

Mary swapped the babies. Class decided two lives before either child could speak.

Cracked like a plate and still narrating. The book's body is the country's body.

The pickle jars preserving 1,001 deadlines. Memory as chutney, his recipe, stolen gratefully.

Carried out of it: nations inherit their accidents. Individuals inherit the narrative.