by Pramila Venkateswaran
ENTERPRISE
Beyond the holy wall that soaks up tears,
Is the familiar tan frown of day
Accompanying our trips to the mall
To visit Louis Voitton and Versace,
The kaching-kaching of money across
The desert, the surprise of shattering
Hearts, a government in camouflage,
and the script of enterprise learned through centuries.
FROM ISRAEL TO KOCHI
They have come from Israel
to breathe the same air as their people
once breathed. Along the sands of Kochi
they walk, their eyes mirroring
the slate blue sky filling the water
lined by catamarans, Chinese fishing nets
and poles dividing sunsets and sunrises.
They have come from Israel
to turn over their ancestors’ sacred goblets
and vases in their hands, feel
the rough edges of the Torah
handled through so many services, taste
the Shabbat meal served on banana leaves—
rice, fish kozhombu, pineapple wedges, and matza.
They have come from Israel to walk
Jew Street, turn the grainy sand
of the synagogue compound under their heels,
feel the cool blue printed Chinese tiles,
gaze at the gold pulpit with its velvet drape
around the slim gold pillars,
raise their eyes to square prints on the ceiling,
glass chandeliers like fiery trees,
silk drapery against the walls, coloured
globes of glass waiting to be lit.
They know now the comfort of succour
among the tumult
of the market.
Yes, they have come from Israel to decipher the symbols
left on abandoned pillars,
discover old synagogue walls and Jewish homes
behind the commercial buzz of Kochi.
Can they hear the old Hebrew songs
among these bleached walls rising up
to the white star of David and beyond?
Listen, how they now blend their young voices
to the haunting rhythms among boats
plying the jetty.
I’ll come back, they hear from the distant sea,
the familiar phrase of exile and longing.
Yes, do. The sea is open. The coast is, too.
The footprints are still fresh. They have come,
they have come.
Usha Akella, co-director of MATWAALA:
In its signature spirit of community welcoming established and upcoming poets, Matwaala 2018 took place in NYC. Matwaala’s Big Read was hosted by Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) on 26 September 2018. The participating poets this year were Usha Akella, Zilka Joseph, Ralph Nazareth, Varsha Saraiya-Shah, Ravi Shankar, Vivek Sharma and Pramila Venkateswaran. 2018’s Poet of Honour was Ralph Nazareth. There was also a reading with a feminist theme hosted by Bluestockings Bookstore in NYC.
Pramila Venkateswaran was the Poet Laureate of Suffolk County, Long Island (2013-15) the co-director of Matwaala: South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival. She is the author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002), Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Thirteen Days to Let Go (Aldrich Press, 2015), Slow Ripening (Local Gems, 2016), and The Singer of Alleppey (Shanti Arts, 2018). She has performed poetry internationally, including at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and the Festival Internacional De Poesia De Granada. An award-winning poet, she teaches English and Women’s Studies at Nassau Community College, New York, and has authored numerous essays on poetics as well as creative non-fiction. She is the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year (2011). Visit her website for more information.