Bobosh*

Amina Ibodulaeva || Fall 2025

The day you left this world
Birds stopped singing; Sun, shining,

In our hearts and souls
You became a memory

Unforgettable and Sweet.

Oh how I wish to return home,
To smell again and try your pilaf*

To you express my love
As I hug you tightly on the neck...

Oh how I want to hear the laughter

That hurts my ears, so much, after

For it’s so loud and full of joy...

But I am afraid to enter this house now,

Where darkness and the gloom is now its owner,

Where reminds me of you this every corner...

I set the fireplace,
Yet it does not warm me now or will ever,

For with you, my dear,
This house had died as well, forever...

*Bobosh means grandpa in Tajik. Dedushka is a Russian word for it. That’s what I called my late grandpa Rustam.