Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

The night my mother tells the story of the thief / I am cross-legged on her lap /Her mouth is inches from my ear / She lets the dusk slip into her voice and whispers / about the boy who snatched a mango at the market and ran / becoming the teenager who robbed a shop at gun point / shot the blind cashier / shot him as he fell, shot him once more dead / became the man who stole 36 cars and when apprehended / to be publicly hanged / asked for one wish / his whole lip quivering 

My mother who is inches from my ear / explains his dying wish to speak to his mother / The crowd parted silently / she gathered his bound wrists / kissed his rough skin / her cheeks shimmering in the killing heat / He bent forward says mother / her mouth even closer / dusky voice hushed / bent towards her cheek as if to kiss goodbye and switched sharply / bit into her ear / strained against the flesh / ripped the thing off and spat / You should have told me mother / what I did was wrong