In search of memory this Memorial Day
Is a line I heard on NPR
While I struggle to experiment with appam batter
-- A culinary art I never had a chance to learn
Nor miss
While still a child at home,
Co-existing with the Lost Generation.
Co-existing with the Lost Generation.
This Memorial Day
I don't need to search my memory
To remember my grandmother
Who neither fought in a man's war
Nor has passed away,
But merely, enormously
Hovers
Between life and blessed death.
But this battle
For breath,
Neither old nor new for her,
Is a struggle she'd consider
Much less tortuous
And more welcome
Than the fight for dignity
That she has been losing
For more than half of her life.
Malathi, 5/30/2016
