By Mrinalini Harchandrai
VERANDAHS
Verandahs ought to be declared
the new world order
even though the old houses
birthed them as articles
of constitution wood
not in or outside
like thoughts can be
colonials of the brain
planting slap-paint rails
one can leap across
defender of the arts
of tea slurping
over fanning debates
weather the greenhouse
is a curdled film
of affected moss
table thudding parliament
of birding vocabulary
queuing intervention notes
of the robbin’ tenderer
warbling black exchanges
from redcrest digital feeders
planters chair senate
spacing equitable expression
in a conclave of civil craft
empiring a democracy
of lounging lizards
in their folded arms.
BREAKING INTO AN EPIC
The elephant lord snapped his tusk
the sky veined its way through
and pulled open the tops of mountains
peering in with clouded lids
the blindfolds come off
easily as characters shape
themselves into liquid memory
passing from lip to lip
standing on the gunplay
and violence of the ages
darting through mirrors of time
tiptoeing at the edgepage of covenants
where the gods refine the slings
and arrows of their gravity laws
late in spring afternoons like books thickening
with spine overlooking garden overgrowth
child guardians nurture puddles of stone
haunting the flesh of history
that pass between the windows
of our houses easily as templebelling
places that don't find place
on any map we possess
time-lapse an index of presences
ivory strangers who arrive from inkpens into familiarity.
Mrinalini Harchandrai is the author of A Bombay in My Beat, a collection of poetry that explores the soundtrack of the city, personal cadences and jazz poetry. Her poem won first prize in The Barre (2017), she was a finalist for the Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize 2019 and was shortlisted for the Wordweavers Poetry Contest 2019. Her unpublished novel was selected as Notable Entry for the Disquiet International Literary Prize 2019. Her short stories have been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2018 and selected as a Top Pick (2018) with Juggernaut Books, India. Her work has been anthologized in The Brave New World of Goan Writing 2018 and RLFPA Editions’ Best Indian Poetry 2018, and her writing features on several literary platforms.
Banner image is copyright of Mrinalini Harchandrai.