Silver Shoes!

a happy Diwali of love and hope to everyone

Gateway

Dream 25sep08

e e cummings

Peeping Through Windows

Full Moon Night Revelry

Dancing Diyas

The Walled City

Quoting Don Pablo

My Little Incense Stick

It is a ritual that I enact everyday -
every working day -
in which I take off my market slippers outside the door to my pink room
and arrange them neatly to one side.

As I step onto the wooden floor threshold,
my feet take up the blue rubber chappals that have been waiting patiently for me
since the last time I said goodbye.

I turn on the electricity to all my machines and devices,
pressing a little button
that buzzes into blue life as my computer powers on.
I then open the windows, and,
even before I sit down,
pull out a stick of incense
to light on the violet flame of grandma's gas stove.

With one quick flick,
the stick comes to rest in its wooden stand
and begins to tell its story for the day:

Sometimes
in its spicy smoke I smell amber
and myrrh and frankinscence.
Although I can't say with certainty
what amber or myrrh or frankinscence smell like,
I imagine that when I find them
and sniff them
one summer's day in Constantinople,
that they will remind me
of my little incense stick in my pink little room in Bombay.

On other days
it diffuses cinnamon and cardamom
and honey around our empty house -
almost like the ittar my mother bought in Dubai,
which I wear on lonely days,
and whose bottle - to my dismay -
rests in a scandalously shaped box
that imitates the Ka'aba in Mecca.

Today I am reminded -
in the midst of a ylang ylang, patchouli, Flame of the Forest haze -
of the Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain:
the thought of spiced cookies and mulled wine
and the little girl who's face can never be painted
because the artist isn't quite sure what she feels like
or where she ought to be looking
while everyone around her is picknicking.

I wonder what she's thinking of
in the Sunday sunshine warmth
surrounded by the French paysage,
and I wonder about her day.

Confucious says...

Watching

I Believe, therefore I am

and if I thought so much
as to keep you
these grains of the sands of time
might seep through
my fingers entwined
in silent mine
in wordless deed
and heedless mind
- epiphany-
in a moment
of subliminal rhyme

Contenedores 2

En un cajón de mi conciencia
escondo tu nombre
por oscuras fotografías, papeles, hojas de inscripción,
entre tarros de tinta negra
y lentejuelas poquitas
-trocitas de todo
lo que yo espero

Pero a veces,
cuando estoy segura
que nadie me da cuenta,
yo le quito
y le escrito
para recordar
como le siente
entre mis manos


(*)

Containers

Inside a drawer in my awareness
I hide your name
with dark photographs,
papers, application forms,
in between jars of balck ink
and tiny sequins -
fragments of everything I hope for

But occasionally,
when I'm sure that no one's watching,
I take it out
and write it down
just to remember -
to remind myself
what it feels like in my hands

Contenedores 1 o Vaganbunda

En una caja de mi conciencia
guardo a una vagabunda -
una planeta,
cometa sin órbita
que vague entre deseo y odio,
furia y tanquilidad,
entre determinación y destino
en su espacio de infinidad

A veces yo puedo domarla,
e a veces ella me frustra;
pero cuando no puedo soportarla
yo la abandono
hasta ella se portará

Pero ella es mi estrellita:
en verdad, mi voluntad-
y a cambio de mi paciencia
ella guarda mi alma,
mi razón
y mi generosidad



(*)
Inside a box in my conscience
I keep a little vagabond -
a planet
like a comet without an orbit
that wanders between desire and hate,
fury and tranquility,
between determination and destiny
in her infinite, infinite space

Sometimes I'm able to tame her
and though, at other times she frustrates me,
when I can't deal with her anymore,
I leave her alone until she behaves herself

But the truth is,
that she is my little star:
my own willpower
and in return for my patience
she gaurds my generosity,
my reason
and my soul

Venus

Twilight tortures the twinkling star
Venus - goddess of goodness-what-you-are
If, even you,
in all your might,
can't change this heart or share some light