BLACK GOD
The last time we went to Thirupathi,
my husband conceived
and bought a Salagram.
A black shiny elongated pebble.
It is alright to hold a baby
to your bosom, in you forearm
feed time and lullaby time,
but you know what the salagram did?
It sat between us, plop on the settee,
and crept between on the four poster.
I had visualized a place in the showcase
next to Alo's gift Ganapathy
but it went to our puja room
in a silver dish and demanded
yellow gilded satins and milk baths
sugar candy rice, pistachios, dry grapes
and a hundred and eight chants.
So what, if it robbed our intimacy
and I hated it? Enemy. Blackguard.
But then it occupied all my mental
S P A C E.
Sivakami Velliangiri has been included in the History of Indian Writing in English.’ She has published her poems in Little Magazine, Indian Scholar, The Poetry Chain, The Indian Literature, Kavi, Muse India, and a few international e-zines. The Lily Literary Review published an electronic chapbook of her poems collectively titled, In My Midrib. She has read her poems at The Prajnya Violence Against Women Campaign, The Prakriti Foundation and on board a ship to a group of students from Pittsburgh at the Semester-at–Sea. She is interested in bringing poetry to the younger ones and has been coordinating the British Council Poetry Circle and The Prakriti Poetry Circle. Sivakami lives in Chennai with her husband, son, daughter, a parrot named Jade, and a Saligram.
The last time we went to Thirupathi,
my husband conceived
and bought a Salagram.
A black shiny elongated pebble.
It is alright to hold a baby
to your bosom, in you forearm
feed time and lullaby time,
but you know what the salagram did?
It sat between us, plop on the settee,
and crept between on the four poster.
I had visualized a place in the showcase
next to Alo's gift Ganapathy
but it went to our puja room
in a silver dish and demanded
yellow gilded satins and milk baths
sugar candy rice, pistachios, dry grapes
and a hundred and eight chants.
So what, if it robbed our intimacy
and I hated it? Enemy. Blackguard.
But then it occupied all my mental
S P A C E.
Sivakami Velliangiri has been included in the History of Indian Writing in English.’ She has published her poems in Little Magazine, Indian Scholar, The Poetry Chain, The Indian Literature, Kavi, Muse India, and a few international e-zines. The Lily Literary Review published an electronic chapbook of her poems collectively titled, In My Midrib. She has read her poems at The Prajnya Violence Against Women Campaign, The Prakriti Foundation and on board a ship to a group of students from Pittsburgh at the Semester-at–Sea. She is interested in bringing poetry to the younger ones and has been coordinating the British Council Poetry Circle and The Prakriti Poetry Circle. Sivakami lives in Chennai with her husband, son, daughter, a parrot named Jade, and a Saligram.
