The steaming ghee rice,
yellow dhal,
cucumber salad,
spicy temptation wafting up from the beef curry…
My family,
from ma to niece,
sit at the dining table.
When I take the vacant chair,
I feel it’s an exact recurrence of a past feast.
An unreal reality.
Transient.
Living is an illusion –
the Indian philosophy glows like a firefly within my skull.
Man lugs life to death with a little knowledge.
Like telepathy,
déjà vu is another mysterious truth promising things beyond the corporeal end.
First published in The Literary Hatchet (issue#28).
Rice and dhal curry
Cooked hot
Rice or curry
Taste good
To serve again
Like a good poem
Wish to read once again
D-octor's
H-ospital
A-pparently
L-eaves
W-uhan
I-nfection
L-iterally
D-ead
E-rasing
R-abidity
Topic: Birthday of Dhal M. Wilder (June 09)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
Price of dhal is done
Downed
Tin fish too
Thank you!
But how to consume?
Sans hand sanitizers in the market!
D-awn
H-as
A-ided
L-ife
W-ith
I-lluminate
L-ight
D-oing
E-arly
R-adiance
Topic: Birthday of Dhal M. Wilder (June 09)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
"Zindagi bhr ka bas itna sa fasana hay,
Aaj nhi to kal hamain bhi chale jaana hay,
Talkh zindagi ke samandar main beh kar,
Hamain akhir main kinare se lag jaana hay,
Ye jo sooraj hay, har roz nai zindagi jeeta hay,
Ise bhi har sham maghrib main dhal jaana hay,
Saansain jitni hay jee lo maze lekar,
Akhir main sab ki saanson ko thum jaana hay,
Sharqi sare mosam tujhe yaaad krte hain,
Teri tarah hume bhi ye jism chor jaana hay....!
I knelt down covering the face with ground,
Romancing with hands spread
All over, exploring crevices, valleys
Undulating hills and mountains which spreadraggle.
His worshipful majesty blotting out of my turlips
In repeated recitation recalcitrant tongue,
Ageless ancestors do come together,
And let us broke on reason,
Plead case with the Almighty
Plead when prone to give in
Plead when on his Dinner spread,
Don’t offer chicken noodles and potato shuffle
But barbecue basted boasted Peacock, offer
Salami salmon salad in the sky
Roasted shark fins garnish with jellyfish
Add some coral reef to taste,
Dragon eyes buried in hot chili sauce;
Gut of Godzilla and chop chest of Plesiosaur
Mutton of Dinosaur and the baldhead of king Kong,
Breathing steam, sweet cherry on top,
All gather in a giant charger,
Let him not sip them down with Apricot flan,
Rousing rumbling champagne, bland brandy
But chestnut seed, olive and kernel oil
Sunripe grapes, camouflage lemons, rose of clematis,
Ceanothus, sunflower seeds and a sprinkle of cayenne
Let Hercules wringe together,
Let the violet juice drop to fill his goblet
And settle his heart.
Tandoori,tikka bhuna
chicken ,anyway
samosas and pokoras
wholemeal chapatis
burfi and laddu
dhal but no
Ghee!
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