Sunday Scribblings: In the Beginning

Fiji, an ocean ago
The river and laundry outside
and enormous rocks
Chasing my mother
baskets tucked under her arms
My bangles, dancing along my arms
Little red scooter
wooden and worn
Coconut milk early in the morning
Warm rain
lizards slithering in rich hue
teensy-weensy frogs
Earth is a spell in green
Chutney and pickle
onion and pepper
My kaleidoscopic world
Nani and the ghee, my grandmother and the sacred butter
My mother, taller than trees
willowy and wise
A fusion of clove
cardamom
camphor
Her hair, onyx. Endless
Her eyes, tired and stone...

Sweet sixteen, an ocean away from home
sloshed and stoned
Goodbye daddy
California, alone
Summer in the valley
relentless heat
Stale and sugar plump
My mother, strange and far
Bittersweet
Friendship and solace
Midnight movies on the Old Sac lawn
Mushrooms and ice-cream and voices
A sodden song
A river so long
Trips and talks and a decade to treasure
Water, a wave, and the wash...

Acceptance
trail
renewal
A new shore, North Beach
more enormous rocks