Food poems anthology!

 These two were especially written for, and published in, a food poems print anthology called Quesadilla and other food poems edited by Somrita Urni Ganguly, who's also a friend, so cheers to her-- yay!! 

Learning Balance Through Food 

 

Salt is an essential requirement in food. 

So heap it up. No, not so much as to become 

too much! You are cooking vegetables, not salt, you see. 

Salt is what you call a spice, or a condiment. 

It can make you, or it can break you. That’s the thing with salt. 

And the thing with hot crackling spluttering oil too. And with sugar. 

And with a zillion other things. Heck, it’s the thing with cooking itself. 

How did our ancestors live without fire

Cooking is vital but too much only leaves you with charred remains. 

So how much do you need of a good thing 

Are you making gobhi-aloo or aloo-gobhi? 

Do you want to balance the green with red and yellow bell peppers? 

What mix of sociology, history and poetry in a literature PhD? 

 How many poets is too many poets? You need to decide. 

Of course you may have milky sugary tea. I prefer it without

Then there are those who leave the tea leaves out of the tea and make it herbal

What proportion vodka in a glass of orange juice? Or vice versa. 

As a Facebook meme said, a balanced diet is red wine with white, milk chocolate with dark

Or let’s take rasgullasgulabjamunsladdoos and mithais. 

They are first and foremost sweets, Madame. 

But some like my mother like their sweets less-sweet. 

Or those like my taste-buds who mature with age

Leaving childish chocoholism and cottage cheese cravings behind 

You may be at the political centre, sir. I, surely left of centre 

But fundamental extremes only bind us in circles of continuum 

And next time you obsess, Asperger’s like  (note to self) 

over an unironed crease or some bit of dirt 

An incomplete footnote or an excluded poet 

Unbounded optimism-pessimism, emotion-reason, kindness-firmness 

And perhaps even the next time you exercise militant vegetarianism to spare those poor animals 

(So exercise it yes, but decide how much salt, what kind of salt) 

Maybe, just maybe remember (I need to learn but so do you) 

that although salt is an extremely important ingredient in cooking, 

And must certainly never be overlooked 

Salt must still be used in proportion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Love Through Food

 

Conveying love through serving food

offerings upon heaped offerings, platefuls

is common in a culture which shies away

from expressing love in other ways.

Taste also as a marker of love is a common

motif in poetry. Tasting tea together,

wine together, cooking together, tasting

the beloved’s lips, nose, skin, eating

the desired one. Only, I make love

to you differently. Making love in absentia.

I try to connect with you whom I yearn for

by connecting with your culture.

Axomiya food. In my case, Axomiya everything.

But this poem is about food.

The mashed aloo pitika. The bamboo shoots I love.

Dried. Or pickled. Or fried. Bamboo shoots are bamboo shoots.

The khobong raspberry tea. So many myriad teas.

The laishak. I haven’t tasted the other

green leafies. The temulpaan which burned my throat,

I had so much. The big bright yellow nemus.

The brown Kumool chawal which swells in water.

The curd with rice flakes and jaggery. The payesh.

And sweet rice pithas. Narikollaru. The tangy dal

with the outenga in it. Did you grow up eating these?

You wrote poetry and prose about consuming home

through food. I so want to eat all of that.

I have very limited experience. I would anyway

Not have the maasortenga, the duck, the pork, the bacon.

Forever a divide between you and me. How does he make

love to you, not knowing how these feel and taste

upon your tongue. He has never eaten, never will.

How does he make love to you, not knowing that?

In absentia, I eat the bhogalichowmein (like I ate

with you once, remember? Aloo paranthas, popcorn,

chowmein – not axomiya). I try to adopt Axom land

I try to eat and dream my way back to you.