by A Annapurna Sharma
Annapurna writes a poem about an old woman whose only desire is to eat fish. The poem traces the woman’s journey since childhood and speaks about how she wishes to end this mortal journey.
It wasn’t new to me, the dampness of air
Inured since childhood – my face, a sunburnt purplish
Get a ten rupee home, my mother screamed blue murder
Since the day I could toddle, she sucked back her milk, from my sweat
The horns of the lemon tree grazed the mead from my juvenility
And the fruits of citrus tumbled over my breasts onto my bosom
I harvested round yellows in my lehenga
Orchard owner’s eye idling near my skin
Flies are unable to settle on my wrinkled skin, a river of salt
How will they, when the fat had chosen to estrange me?
The oil of my toil now sleeps with my daughter-in-law
The witch that she is – shoving me to the market
To sell greens and get home a ten rupee note
To devour delicacies – stale rice water with a few mushed grains
And a weeping pickle melding in darkness
Hell or heaven – I don’t know, I want this pilgrimage to end
To brush off the earthy scent from my nostrils
How I wish my fluids dry, just as salted fish
And to levitate in air, like the Baba
My soul perambulating the fish market
I don’t want to turn a ghost, like Kanaka, my friend,
Torturing sons and daughters for a mere banana curry
I wish to get a place just outside the fish market
To sell my greens and smell the fish
Till my end…a satiated journey.
Annapurna Sharma is Editor of Your Space/ Muse India, a literary e-journal. Her maiden book of poems, ‘Melodic Melange’, was awarded the Prime Poetry Award for Excellence, 2019 (Pulitzer Books). She is the recipient of Savitribai Phule National Women Achiever Award – 2018 and was adjudged Distinguished Writer – International in the 4th Bharat Award for Literature (short story contest 2018) by Xpress Publications. Her short stories, articles and poems have appeared in print and online publications.
Thank you dear Sangeeta for your appreciation. I am glad you could resonate with the feelings portrayed…
Thank you Sangeeta. Glad that you enjoyed the verse.
The pain of a woman and her wish to leave her painful life is expressed so beautifully. Her condition doesn’t change since childhood. The poem is picturesque and evocative. I can feel the stench of a fish market. Use of language like fruit of citrus tumbling and weeping pickle melding in darkness is so beautiful that express her condition. Loved reading the poem.