Sunu P. Chandy
Unpacking on the L2
Entering the L2 bus, a meeting in her headphones,
the bus driver stops her. Half paying attention
she thinks it’s something about her bus fare,
but he keeps gesturing her towards him
and so she stops. He says to her: Hope
this isn’t offensive, but are you gay?
She gives a complex answer
involving phrases like nonbinary presenting
and queer, without checking his box,
but he correctly understands the answer
as enough of a version of a yes. And so,
continues his inquiry. He explains
it’s not that he thinks gay people shouldn’t
get married, it’s just he thinks
that maybe they shouldn’t be
parents. And some of his gay colleagues
back at the bus depot got upset
at him for saying that. But, what
do you think? You wouldn’t be mad
if I said that, right? My spouse, often not
hot-headed, paused and responded:
Hmm, where do you think
you got that idea? Let’s unpack that.
He explained that he thought boys
should have fathers, don’t you think?
And my tomboy spouse, in her home
with mostly just her mother, grandmother,
and sister, came forward with evidence. She said
she knew a lot of young men and other people
raised just by their mamas and grew
up to be fine. She does know this
to be true. He seemed to pause,
and she continued explaining,
to be sure, a father might
be a nice to have, but with so many
separated families, that’s not
always the case, right? And so,
they kept chatting. And then she explained
she needed to get back to her meeting,
pointing to her headphones,
her colleague having heard
the entire exchange. And it was not until
afterwards, as she was passing by to exit
the bus, just across the street from our home
filled with me relearning eight grade
algebra, and our daughter learning how to make
the family whole meals from Hello Fresh,
did she mention this part. You know,
my beautiful wife and I might get
a lot of things wrong. But I do think
we are good parents to our daughter.
She’s fourteen. She’s in middle
school now. And with that, she went
to give that bus driver a fist bump. And
at that moment, at that bus stop, steps
from our home, the bus driver got up
from his seat. He unlatched the gate
that kept him in his seat. He came forward,
towards her, he came forward
and said: May I, give you, a hug?
And when I tell my friends this story,
they ask me if my wife is some
kind of prophet. And I beam,
because, I know many of us
like to think we have good hearts,
but this one, she must have
her mother’s wild grace,
in addition to her own,
wild patience, too.
Sunu P. Chandy is a social justice activist through her work as a poet and a civil rights attorney. Sunu’s collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was published by Regal House in 2023. Chandy’s work can also be found in publications including Asian American Writers' Workshop's The Margins, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Poets on Adoption, Split this Rock’s online social justice database, The Quarry, and in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, and This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. Chandy was included as one the 2021 Queer Women of Washington and one of Go Magazine’s 100 Women We Love: Class of 2019.