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Moni Brar

Questions for the Bears

​did you stand at the forest’s edge?
noiseless in the damp of pine and ether,
sweet warmth of hibernation lingering
thick on your black fur and tongue.
 
did you watch us with your marble eyes?
as we invaded your domain,
scrambled over mounds of garbage
to scavenge for small things,
precious only to us.
 
did you circle my father?
his young body bent
as he pushed aside
broken TVs, record players, highchairs
and his imported pride.
 
did you gape at my sister?
as she rummaged for a purse
with a clasp, silk lining intact,
her beautiful brown fingers running
along the seams that held it all together.
 
did you see me digging?
through soiled rags for a doll
with all four limbs attached,
blonde hair begging
to be washed.
 
did you smell the fear?
rich as rot in my brother,
a jangle of sharp elbows and knees
among smooth bags bursting
with the rinds of other people’s lives.
 
did you sense the rage?
that filled the crack that became a chasm
between my mother’s brows
as she searched the decay for things
to fill a new life in an empty trailer.
 
did you taste the shame?
the shame we were digging through,
always digging through,
ripe and nourished
and always on our lips.

Biography

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Moni Brar is an uninvited settler who lives, writes and learns on unceded, unsurrendered territories of the Treaty 7 region and the Syilx of the Okanagan Nation. She is a Punjabi, Sikh Canadian writer exploring diasporan guilt, identity, cultural oppression, and intergenerational trauma. She believes in the possibility of personal and collective healing through literature and art. Her work appears in PRISM international, Hart House Review, Existere, The Maynard, untethered, Hobart, and other publications. She is a member of the Alexandra Writers' Centre Society, The League of Canadian Poets, and the editorial board of New Forum Magazine. She has worked in 13 countries and is grateful to call Canada home.
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ISSN 2639-426X
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  • Home
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    • Contributors List
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  • Issues
    • Issue 49
    • Issue 48
    • Issue 47
    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions