Kitchen Pantoum
Shome dasgupta
Feels antediluvian—Savoie’s roux burns on the stove alongside a pot of debris, simmering and
sauntering.
Outside, a flood rises, maybe to erode memories embedded in our earth—we tend to a garden of
dirt and pebbles.
Ma patiently waits for the electricity to shock and shut and talks of blackouts in Kolkata to lessen
the surge.
Waves of oceanic heat reminds Baba of the Bay of Bengal and how a swoosh of air brings in
tides of cremated stars.
Outside, a flood rises, maybe to erode memories embedded in our earth—we tend to a garden of
dirt and pebbles.
A heron in the rain—rather, for every flap toward a steeple to rest a beak and listen to thunderous
songs of the Gulf.
Waves of oceanic heat reminds Baba of the Bay of Bengal and how a swoosh of air brings in
tides of cremated stars.
I've heard of solar storms and mathematics and stories that broken abacuses bead away from rod
to rod while Dadu and Dida sip tea in the dark.
A heron in the rain—rather, for every flap toward a steeple to rest a beak and listen to thunderous
songs of the Gulf.
Anthropomorphic clouds—magnetic and flared, a Muppets bedsheet from childhood continues to
cover my dreams where I visited relatives in Jodhpur Park.
I've heard of solar storms and mathematics and stories that broken abacuses bead away from rod
to rod while Dadu and Dida sip tea in the dark.
Playing cricket in a back alley, bird stained and cobbled—we perfect laughter while aunties
dressed in flowery saris listen to my Thomani’s voice on vinyl.
Anthropomorphic clouds—magnetic and flared, a Muppets bedsheet from childhood continues to
cover my dreams where I visited relatives in Jodhpur Park.
Feels antediluvian—Savoie’s roux burns on the stove alongside a pot of debris, simmering and
sauntering.
Playing cricket in a back alley, bird stained and cobbled—we perfect laughter while aunties
dressed in flowery saris listen to my Thomani’s voice on vinyl.
Ma patiently waits for the electricity to shock and shut and talks of blackouts in Kolkata to lessen
the surge.
