I saw her face upside down
As she wrapped me in her veil-wide and white;
A doll of widow-hood;
She pounded my navel with her palm;
Round and round; and applied oil;
May be of mustard of our land; .
I twisted my limbs in sweat pain;
And grabbed her fingers; .
They tickled me below my belly.
Now, she hung me upside down;
Over her lap, pleated and coiled.
She kissed my feet.
I reached for her dried up breasts;
Hung upside down;
The faces of my ancestors were itched
On them; like tattoos.
Her head lay on my lap;
As a sacred banyan;
Threads of untold miseries hung,
Like serpents around her waist.
I felt her pulse fearing that
She might get burnt alive;
As she had been for years;
The whistle of the approaching
Train made me weep;
On the perfumed shoulder of my mother.
Tiku akp
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-grand-mother/
