Poem 5: Oolong, by Judith Lal
Illustration Credit - Elena Belokrinitski
In a dance with two fingers
they pluck the first two tips of camellia
when the season is a sterling flush.
A sometime heat finds out green
humming a recipe to itself.
No time for the Krishna butterfly
to smoke into the concentration of perspiration.
Picture credit- Nirmala Mayur Patil (http://nirmalamayurpatil.blogspot.in)
With their creche of babies
rocked high further on
they must fill the quota and over.
Delicate, where foothill rings
step close together
under layers of a wide skirt,
ghats where the sun is still young
before the pukka guesswork of rain,
where an umbrella is a basketed idea
in service to monsoonal silver.
A few rupees flown down. Needs must.
They laugh with us who drink dust.