Mosquitoes swarmed above my heads
That was my bed time story
Mother stood outside hand washing the clothes
At a quarter to ten
It’s okay you can ask
No we didn’t have a washing machine
That could ease the stress from my mother’s shoulders
Nor the pain in her legs as she switch from one leg to the other

Where was your father?
Why didn’t he help her?
He did. Sent all four of us to school and we never missed a day except when ill
He came home sometimes after three in the morning
Not from another woman’s house but from being a bus operator
Trying to see if he can make another fifty dollars before he comes home.
He left early in the morning so I hardly saw him
I knew I have a father because I caught glimpses of him rushing off to work
Sometimes I stayed up late just to remind myself of what he looks like

The shower in the bathroom doesn’t work.
Our warm water came from a kettle poured into a basin not a tub
Always dreamt of America and its streets of gold
But now I’m here I want to go back to my palace.