SHALINI SINGH

How mother burns the milk and calls it ghee

Mother doesn't eat ice cream
calls it a manifestation
of mannat,
which is unfulfilled
grateful though
for she has surely forgotten the taste
of how sugar
runs down the throat
after a temperance
of piquancy

Mother removes the idols
once a year
she bathes them
in milk
and I feel jealous
I ask her if this task is related to Jupiter
and she says, "this is a remedy
of all maladies ever"

The stove crackles
fire spits out in the sky
the clouds father evidence
in form of rain
the milk boils
mother, tired
dozes off
dreaming of malai

He is the demiurge

Kalpa
Vaivasvata
the astrologer
draws neatly onto paper, seven houses
I ask him if he has missed
a compartment of demiurge
the demiurge
the pasterretrap

"You can't escape sade sati", he says
I ask him if he knows why not
he nods his head
draws another line and then another
"Yahweh"

I run to the refuge of the wisest man, Abraxas
fallen angels have ignited passions
which I must adhere to
this passion is lurking in one of the houses
and I am lurking at the behest of the demiurge

half awake
half slept

Shalini Singh, India loves to Binge-everything. She has read a book a day, everyday for years and now edits for Shabdaaweg, drinks good coffee and travels to unearth stories. Nominated for Pushcart, Shalini was recently Longlisted for 20 Under 30 South Asian Fiction Writer's and she is happy to report that what all she wrote in the previous year has been published or is forthcoming in The Spectacle, The Nation, The Good Men Project, Tofu InkPress amongst other places. Shalini is working on writing Mathematical poems. You can find her online at linktr.ee/belladonnaoflavender and on IG at belladonnaoflavender.