Tinsel Hope

I hid in a stocking that Christmas Eve party,

right by the mistletoe,

eyed kids lapping stripey candy pops

watched sparkling wine flow.

I made snowflakes from wasted wrapping sheets

cleaned sauce off her dirty stair.

little morsels of fruit and wine,

I wiped them fair and square.

While I tidied her delicious cutlery,

I watched her guests and Lucy prance,

and joined them in their merry cheer

and on her gifts, did a drunken dance.

I swung on the Xmas branches

and toyed with the fairy’s wand

but skipped on a disco electric ball

and thud! I fell, to the ground.

While Lucy and her guests sang

I lay in writhing pain,

“Christ the Savior… ! A RAT!! A RAT!” I heard,

I prayed I wouldn’t be slain.

I woke up to a bright Christmas morn

saw angel-white snowflakes fall,

dizzy from last night’s ordeal,

little could I even recall.

I wasn’t in my icy trashyard

or the dark, sinewy bin,

I felt my head on a scrunchy bed,

by a spinning wheel and a corn-filled tin!

So, I believe in this fest of togetherness,

in hymns of glorious oracles,

of forgivers and selfless saviours like Lucy 

and tinsel-wrapped divine miracles!


Rajashree Anand

Replenished

Feed me, where islets of fecund earth,

rise from the sea like green straw mushrooms

grilled by the orange sun,

and seasoned by wild waves, saline.

Quench me, with pure mineral water,

the glistening mirror of the eternal thirst

to be one with my wandering soul,

entangled in flighty memories.

Purify me, bathe away guilty imprints

remnants of a futile past ,

to dissolve in the white sands of time

and cleanse my future journeys.

Natural mother, you for eons of years

have only nurtured, rocked

and put me to blissful sleep

only to renew and rejuvenate

and seek you forever.

Rajashree Anand

(- ( after a trip to Langkawi))