"In search of memory this Memorial Day."

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.

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