AND THEN SLOWLY, WITHOUT NOTICE
Today, yet again, everything feels so chaotic—
as if each thing were a name for your
strictly diurnal migraine, misshapen sleep,
as if each were a spirit brushing past
you, even storming through you,
against all the recorded rules of ethics.
Just now, you somehow feel
as if your blood was looking for
its own dark identity
in other veins and arteries,
and how sad they should be
so few and far between indeed!
And then. Then, slowly, without notice,
a supremely quiet half-second of
time’s generous break in its fluidity,
while your blood finds itself
noticed affectionately, in a room
of its own, wisely lit, so that
everything is just as it should be—
blood stroking blood ever so softly
the very air feels distant, as if brooding
over its own failures, insufficiencies.
Indeed, how eager and anxious
this muted blood could be—
just to be taken care of in the half-light,
almost invisibly, gently loved by an ancient
but identical blood, kindly noticed!
FOOD
A wish rises to the mouth.
What do mashed potatoes tell you
about their wild branching out,
touching similar, friendly roots?
Do they say anything at all?
Or the eggplants? The lady’sfingers?
The tomatoes? Onions.
I wonder if they know
how to formulate a speech at all!
If only they knew, wouldn’t there be
trouble in our alimentary canal,
mouthing words?
How much we speak! And with
very little or no purpose at all!
I wonder if the green potato
and yellow mustard plants
don’t look more like themselves
on their own fields than in our
harsh mouths?
Where do they end, how far are
the hens’ eggs from the potatoes?
Why the distance at all until, unless,
they offer themselves to us?
Can’t we imagine our dream-food
on empty plates and bowls, leave
the rest of the world alone,
to themselves?
***
Bibhu Padhi is the author of ten books of poetry. His poems have appeared in venues throughout the English-speaking world, such as Contemporary Review, Encounter, The Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Confrontation, New Letters, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Poetry (Chicago), Southwest Review, Tulane Review, The New Criterion, Rosebud, TriQuarterly, Antigonish Review, Queen’s Quarterly, and The Illustrated Weekly of India and Indian Literature. They have also been included in numerous anthologies and textbooks, such as Language for a New Century, 60 Indian Poets, and The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry. He is the author of a book on D. H. Lawrence and, with his wife, Minakshi Padhi, a reference book on Indian Philosophy and Religion. He lives in Orissa, India.