If They Ask Keki Daruwalla (bio) If they ask you, the hulks, belly touching the steering,headlights blazing on a canal road, where you are off to,say I missed the last bus, am walking home and if they ask for your village, don’t say Casablanca,Djibouti, some city salted by the Mediterranean breezeand fringed with olives; just mention Kharkhoda, Khekra,anything that grates on the tongue like sandpaper and if they ask your name, say it boldly, not too loud, thoughMunim Khan or Zainuddin or Zulfiqar, and if they askare you circumcised, don’t nod quietly, but say “yes” and if they persist, when did you last kill a cow(and I hope to God you haven’t) say truthfully “never”and when they nod and say you can go, nod and leave. [End Page 26] Keki Daruwalla Keki Daruwalla has published nine volumes of poetry and received the 1987 Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia. His Collected Poems 1970–2005 was published in 2006. He is also the author of three volumes of short stories, a novella, two collections of poetry for children, and a travelogue. Copyright © 2019 University of Hawai‘i Press