Poetry by Malashri Lal

EASTER LILIES IN AN EMPTY HOUSE  

“Come” they call out,
“It’s the season of forgiveness”
A hundred lilies stand tall
Renewed by the magic of seasons
The pink stripes may be scars from yesteryear
The white streaks are healing balm
To be washed by the dew.
The supple leaves
Flat and curved
Cradle the flowers that have no other family
Some do, maybe three lilies on a stem
But they squabble like siblings
Pushing for space.

              They calmly grace the garden of a silent home
              The owners alive only in obituaries
              The lilies don’t worry on that count
              Buried bulbs know they will creep upwards in season
              Life’s renewal is a beautiful certainty.


DREAMING OF MA BY THE SEA

You live somewhere between the black night and the bright star,
Free of body and its temporal limits.
In green leaves turning to red in a mellow autumn
I catch a glimpse of the saree pallav on that day
You knew life was short and might become shorter.
In the shimmer of an unsteady wave on the lake
I recall your tremulous smile
When you whispered trying a hopeless cure.
In the rough-hewn rocks that line the harbour,
I remember your will to fight an uneven battle with the rouge cells.
Here, on shores unknown to you and me,
We meet again.
When the dark sky rests on the sparkle of stars,
Living and dying are no longer apart.