Written piece
MY MEMORIES: MANGOES & HIMALAYAS
Annapurna Sharma
India
About this piece
My childhood memories are filled with succulent mangoes and the mighty Himalayas. My verses illustrate the impact of human intervention and climatic shifts on the juicy mangoes and fragile Himalayas. Will this lead to the loss and devastation of India's prized treasures?
MY MEMORIES: MANGOES & HIMALAYAS
Annapurna Sharma
Mango Moods
There were seasons sated, in my childhood
you could feel them pass by, by kissing your mead
mango memories are clear in my mind
sweetness wiping away the errant me
seeds laughing at my naivety to bite into their flesh
in vengeance, I tried sucking it along with the ras
ras sinking in my duct
ras of aam – ras of being
this summer:
broken phrases in a writer’s handbook
sourness in denial
a disguise of love
dark moles versifying on mellowed skin
tartness, dissonance…
Where is the mellow?
Where is the sweet?
seasons threatening to turn two
stones once proudly proclaimed
as soul pollinators of the race
decline to bury in the heat of de-moist Earth
summers once awash with yellowness and sprightliness
refuse to quote the humid days
Will I be able to quill a romance with my mango moods
or paint a serif to Wordsworth and Coleridge?
WHEN THE DEAD MOUNTAIN CRIES…
Your endless efforts to steal my nature, unbroken
to scale my virtuous body like creepers, vicious
winds murmuring the death of a man in my cleavage
ice pits in my soul, bleeding
dead debris resonating on my sole
You have a desire
I have a desire
You dream of melting me with your death
Will you be able to hold my love in your palms,
if I thawed the way you doomed.
I ache for –
poets scribbling notes of perpetuity on my bosom, silvery
nimble footed dancers tapping on ridges, golden
the flute of invisible Krishna
capturing the trails of Yeti in my dreams
saints dyed the avalanches
snowballing into palaces
the Kingdom of Shambhala
within me
within you
if only you cared
I was born to hold you in my memories
and
not to bury your secrets in my lap…