Smelling a molasses-like ooze on the cover of my damp old book made me wonder what it was. I felt sick to my stomach within five minutes; but didn’t connect the two events. I thought I was coming down with the flu. Within 24 hours I was in Emergency on a ventilator and heart monitor. Eighteen years and a million sneezes later (always more than 100 a day); I no longer had a sense of smell or taste and usually …
Tag: Coconut
“An Imperfect Cook” and Other Poems by Kashiana Singh
An imperfect cook I often look up the recipes saved in a handmade diaryone I had brought along, it was sealed in a quilted bagof things, it was not one of brocade or of autumn richcolors, not like bags sealed with dowry, massive, final this bag was handmade, my dadi’s, not a quintessentialfeast of gold and zardozi of weddings, it was permeableof skin, muslin pores on its surface, colored in mustardof haldi, reminding me of dadi’s golden concoction withginger, honey …
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Two Poems of Wizardry and Cookery by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
In the wizard’s lair Mariammachi rose with the sun – my Nana’s trusted right hand woman she cooked for a grateful household an enchantress with a culinary wand she could turn anything – the humble tapioca, the nondescript okra into Michelin star feasts. She would seat six year old me on the black volcanic rock of Nana’s hundred year old kitchen and I would study with wonder the paste of ash and water she scrubbed the clay pots with gutting …
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