By Melinda Pearson
2020- the year when ennui took over morn, noon and night,
A monotony was set in my house to make sense of the banality-
A routine bilayered with family prayer and a virtual holy mass.
Because in the crisis of hope, faith is mostly always the answer.
And so I saw the same unfold in my household.
Religion never made sense to me but faith always did.
On the mat, we sat for the hour long affair.
But before it started, we were granted a 10 minute break-
To end our conversations and altercations,
To take our seats on the mat with pleats.
I sat opposite to ma's seat.
To see her dozing off, sneaking her siesta she missed.
Everyday was a holiday for me,
After all the schoolwork tests, I always had time to rest.
But for my ma you see, it was just another working day-
For she had to do her job with pay, online
And the one without, offline.
For the onus fell on her through patriarchy's dice,to make a home.
I stared at her- her lips apart and her wrinkles an art,
Her smooth wheatish skin has a few patches,
Maybe from lighting wrong a few matches,
Maybe a past scald, a boil, a burn.
She has lost track of the origin of the scars that adorn
Her face, her arms, her skin.
Each time I want to polish her nails, she hesitates.
Two days of doing the dishes abates-
50₹ worth of polish, so she denies every time,
Quoting the futility of wasting a dime.
I wanted to tell her how I would "waste" thousands on her in a day,
All to see her smile, feel pretty and doll up her inner girl.
Sitting across me, I see her head resting on the wall behind,
The smudged wall, forever there for her, always so kind.
But not as smudged as her palms-
The ones now oblivious to ointments and balms,
The ones which has got cut a 100 times,
Bled and burnt.
Her dress smells of all the dishes she cooked that day,
The batter of morning's dosa to evening's fritters to night's curry,
Her own special kind of diary made of cloth,
One which has not one entry of sloth.
The 10 minutes was up and so was she (up)
600 seconds- all too little for my mamma to have a nap.