Deep within me,
in a special felt basket,
Soft and lovely:
They live
Nynamma’s chicken curry,
Saturday afternoon hikes with Sam,
Riding dads green scooter barely tall enough to see above the handles
Far closer to my heart!
Far away from today!
Soft and lovely they live
The Mumbai Fish fry across from the embassy
The roadside pani puri
and kabobs
Trips to the meat market
Down in a corner of my soul
I placed them.
Oh so long ago
to quickly evolve into
red, white, and blue.
Only sometimes
do I
Pull each out
Hold and see and feel
The silent humming from the cinema right when the hero finally gets the girl
The silent tabla that awakens my soul
The warm roti from that trip to the mountains
Longing to feel
the sugar cane juice
Glide
Longing to sit
on her veranda
and be the first
to be served–
I live my comfortable, easy
Red, white, and blue
In hopes that one day,
You’ll see me
Complete
For a second
Back there
again
full
of then and now.
One day!
[My chicken fry.]
