The Coconut Leaf Top

Faster I ran, faster it spun on a slender stem. My mom’s weaving magic was marvelous. Her hard fingers – with the knife scars and allergic rashes– worked wonders on green coconut leaves. Since I was always impatient to dash onto the ‘spinning ecstasy’, I forgot to admire her, yet she wove again and again for me with a smile. Many skills die in the kitchen as the chicks in omelets. Faster the leaf top spun, faster my experience altered. Speed’s a risky pleasure. The top and I withered – faltered to a pause by the evening. Now I sit musing, ‘Experience is void, unless there is movement’. First printed in The Literary Hatchet, by Pear Tree Press, US.