Summer Unnoticed
By Sivakami Velliangiri
Every year, I see summer way ahead
in Chennai
pushed to the pillow with giddiness
slipping into half slumber
in the AC bedroom in my corner work space
with my desk-top.
Every day I used to dip in lethargy — such inactive lifestyle
even with native kashayams in small quantities
for three days only; nothing to do with the loss of equili-
brium in my eardrums. Allopathy failed, all else failed.
Thus for twenty years I suffered, every summer.
We voluntarily accepted the lockdown
pushed the lock on our front door and stayed indoors,
worked in the kitchen, cleaned vessels, read poetry,
and took stock of our stores, vegetables, medicines,
following the same pattern and had our purchases
dropped at the gate by our non- working maids.
Summer has come to Chennai, we are shut in,
we see the sun shine in the eastern corner,
at noon it shifts to the western verandah,
we pull out our laundry only to hang them.
Outside my daughter’s window a Shikra came,
it was eating a reptile, she caught it on her mobile.
From nearby a magpie perched, singing the Neem trees’ song.
I tell her, shoot it on your phone, we have a balcony-birding challenge,
but she says,
‘’No ma, the magpie is a shy bird.’’
Sivakami Velliangiri is a senior poet based in Chennai. Her poems have been published in various literary journals and Professor Srinivasa Iyengar included her among the women poets in his ‘History of Indian Writing in English’ in his 1980 edition. She co-ordinated the British Council Poetry Circle and enjoyed bringing young ones to poetry. Her online Chapbook ‘In My Midriff’ was published by Lily Literary Review. ‘How We Measured Time’ is her debut poetry book.
