Poem by Megha Sood

We All Rise Out of Love

First published in the SONKU Collective “Family Legacies”, 2020  

My tongue twists and turns
trying to fit the cookie-cutter in a land unknown
words put in my mouth
like the small portions -those morsels
made by warm supple hands of my mother
gently waiting for the next one

Her fingers always doused by the fragrance of the bay leaves
turmeric tainted, the various shades
as she kneads the flour
and dispense the life lessons
in the kitchen on a warm summer day

She taught me, kindness comes from the heart
but hunger pierces a man the most
so learn to soothe hunger
the lingering pain,
as she puts all her strength to knead the flour
into a dollop of the milky moon.

My language is different than yours
I try fervently to explain to my son
who keeps correcting my pronunciation
as I teach him the basics of love
kindness and purity of heart.

Sometimes I wonder,
How this world
marred and demarcated by the boundaries
those twisted pronunciations,
would look beautiful kneaded together?

Like the lump of moon
sitting in the copper-clad plate of my mother
waiting to rise out of warmth.

Video recording -- https://youtu.be/St6b0yzITBg

Megha Sood is an Award-Winning Poet, Editor, Author, and Literary Activist based in New Jersey, USA. Associate Editor at MookyChick (UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner “Life in Quarantine"; with Stanford University, USA. Chapbook (“My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress,2021). Blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.

---