In kenya, there is a keri tree / Sona Popat

and this is summer!

keri juice runs down my chin,

my fingers, the inside of my wrist.

lightning echoes

flicker against the walls and

the rain is a sheet of laminated paper,

a warble and

snap against the pavement.

nani shells peas, legs crossed

as the swing creaks beneath us.

she says: in kenya, there is a keri tree we climbed

every day on the way to school.

and i like to think its still there.

parakeets are blurs in next door’s trees,

swaths of green against slate clouds,

gone again in a moment like-

me, slurping the keri from my fingers

as bhajans hum from the radio.

and nani hums beside me.

Sona Popat is a biological natural sciences student who thinks that science is analogous to art. When she’s not freaking out about cool women in STEM, she can usually be found playing the ukulele, talking about bees, or growing her collection of plants (pun intended!). Her most recent work can be found in BAIT, Notes Magazine, and 3 Moon Magazine.