Restless Leg Syndrome | Samina Hadi-Tabassum

My father’s legs are spindly and taunt
The back of his calves
Dense pits of flesh
Protruding out like choked mangoes
The boney spine of his shins
Exactly perpendicular to his cracked feet
Ancient legs that have been passed down to me
The oldest Indian daughter

I see my father when I look down at my legs
They are the genetic game changer
They are what makes me pure alpha
They are both Icarus and Daedalus
In the midst of flight

My father’s legs climbed ragged tamarind trees
Wandered the zigzag alleys of Old Hyderabad
Walked miles to Osmani University in the dry heat
Rode bicycles to the homes of rich tutees
Sprung back playing cricket in dusty fields
Meandered bazaars looking for a future wife
Climbed the steep mountains up to the Sufi darga
Genuflected in saajda during afternoon prayer
In the grand old mosque

My father’s legs made their way to Chicago in 1974
A structural engineer without his papers
Looking for a job at fast food restaurants
Taking the EL to the IIT campus for night school
Buying cheap clothes at the Goldblatt on the South Side
Picking up scraped furniture in suburban garage sales
Finding a home for his soon-to-arrive family of four
Crowding into a two-bedroom apartment in a Jewish enclave
At Lawrence and Kedzie

Restless leg syndrome is what he calls it
Each Saturday riding the train back and forth alone
Leaving the house before we woke
Gazing at the flocks of strangers at Navy Pier
Bringing back free samples from Daley Plaza
Watching the ethnic parades go by one by one
Peering into dark drinking holes on each seedy corner
Attending the funerals of Irish co-workers he hardly knew
Buying bags of fruit from Mexican trucks and carrying them home
Pulsating, throbbing are his legs by the time night falls
In the dark house

My legs traveled the Golden Triangle
The US, Europe, and India
Globe trekking with a backpack
Only returning to teach in urban America
Patrolling the maddening hallways of middle schools
Shuffling quickly past drug corners
Running marathons for school fundraisers
Coordinating Mexican dances in the auditorium
Climbing up steep stairs in old brick buildings
Walking around the immigrant neighborhood
Talking to the parents of my students
In the Third Ward

Restless leg syndrome is a neurological disorder
An irresistible urge to move one’s body
Wanting to move even in quiet wakefulness
Our legs jerking when we sleep
Antsy, electrical, creeping, itching, pulling, crawling
Then a disappearing numbness
A progressive disease is what it is called
Passed down from Indian father to American daughter

Indian Review | Author Profile | Samina Hadi-Tabassum is a professor at Dominican University.She has published poems in East Lit Magazine and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

 Samina Hadi-Tabassum is a professor at Dominican University.She has published poems in East Lit Magazine and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.