Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 4, Number 2. November 2021. ISSN: 2581-7094
Small Beginnings
--- Lakshmi Kannan
I won’t blame you
if you give me just a casual look
and move on.
I’m a tiny water body
four feet by four feet.
I was named Talakaveri*.
They knew I was a
riverhead.
I’ve a shrine called Brahma Kundigai
that matches my infancy
People throng to offer flowers, coins and prayers.
Come, you’ll find me
on the Brahmagiri hills in Coorg
I’ll then start on my long journey
to wash equally,
the Kannada and the Tamil land.
Now that I know who I am
nothing can stop me.
Nothing.
Talakaveri: source of the river Kaveri
Hemavati*
--- Lakshmi Kannan
Houses had names, back then.
Fondly, they chose ‘Hemavati’
for their large mansion.
Inside, a wealthy joint family thrived
men and women carried the same baggage
unaware that it was nibbled away by time.
Infant girls, birthed by apologetic mothers
received stoically, a half-hearted welcome.
Baby boys ushered celebrations with a feast.
Hemavati flowed on, carrying decades on her back.
The boys morphed into bummers
the girls were profluent, gurgling onward.
The sprawling house gathered gloom with moss
split into unsightly partitions
for the wastrels.
Untrammelled by the asymmetry
‘Hemavati’ girls flowed out
in search of their mother, Kaveri.
‘My daughters, you’ve done me proud,’
said Kaveri, enfolding them
in her
embrace.
*Hemavati is an important tributary of the
major river Kaveri in Karnataka, the third largest river in South India. It
flows through Mandya district before joining Kaveri at Krishnarajasagar.
Being Bilingual
--- Lakshmi Kannan
The binaries
can complement each other
or nearly split you apart
depending on the counsel.
Just join the dots,
said a glib voice in English
you’ll see a pattern, emerging.
Oh no, countered the voice in Tamil
go around the dots
to make a lovely pulli kolam*
pulli kolam: The traditional rangolis special to Tamil Nadu. It’s patterned
with multiple dots that have and sinuous curves and lines going around
them.