“Made Flesh Again”
(Dedicated to those thousand hands I would always touch and hold)
Her visit made everyone run
Fetch her special seat, water glass
A special plate, later scoured
Separate, after her after-work snack
We kids ran in a tumult to see if
Her teeth were different in numbers
Than the last time, slurpy betel
Juice soaked, scary monster red
Mother made chitchat, served her
Coconut candies in summer
Black sesame ones in winter
With jaggery or handmade bread
Aunts poured her water slowly
Careful not to spill, not to mop
Once she cleaned the outhouse
A relic from an unknown rural life
Once she cut the shrubs, weeded, threw
The dead skunk in a ditch and cleaned
Up, we kids asked her to pick a name that
She’d like to be in her dreams so she
Could be allowed to play with us
Make us clay dolls of earthly shapes
Her dark forehead gleamed, no sindoor
Her sari-end bunched at her sagging breasts
Don’t know how to call that luminous one by her name,
She said, but I’d like to be made flesh. Touchable, human, again.
Fetch her special seat, water glass
A special plate, later scoured
Separate, after her after-work snack
We kids ran in a tumult to see if
Her teeth were different in numbers
Than the last time, slurpy betel
Juice soaked, scary monster red
Mother made chitchat, served her
Coconut candies in summer
Black sesame ones in winter
With jaggery or handmade bread
Aunts poured her water slowly
Careful not to spill, not to mop
Once she cleaned the outhouse
A relic from an unknown rural life
Once she cut the shrubs, weeded, threw
The dead skunk in a ditch and cleaned
Up, we kids asked her to pick a name that
She’d like to be in her dreams so she
Could be allowed to play with us
Make us clay dolls of earthly shapes
Her dark forehead gleamed, no sindoor
Her sari-end bunched at her sagging breasts
Don’t know how to call that luminous one by her name,
She said, but I’d like to be made flesh. Touchable, human, again.
Image from the Internet: "Not a Pretty Picture" by Sudharak Olwe. Olwe is an award winning photojournalist, based in Mumbai. See and read at http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-photography/article_1742.jsp
3 comments:
This one is superb and the picture created with a dispassionate sureness that breathes deep compassion.
Absolutely loved it!
Nabina I loved the simple flow of your poem. This is different from the previous ones and one I could associate with it. deeply moved by the end. keep rocking..
Thanks Tiku, Priti
it is a simple one no doubt, the ismple thoguht occupying mind for this long. I am glad you folks followed the story here :)
Post a Comment