A Letter to Kerala

priya keralam.

you sound so foreign

in my mouth. just a whisper

in my memories. yet you feel

so safe.

what a difference

two years can make.

all i remember is the scent of

the munnar tea plantations.

the sounds of the river,

in the afternoons, and

my grandmother's rosaries

at night. monsoon nights where

the rain beat the devil in the

sky. masses at holy magi

that i never understood,

the tenderness of my

family's love, the sweet crunch

of gulab jamaan, the tearful

embrace of my grandparents

as i left for america. somehow,

you hold the most painful

and beautiful of

my memories.

nyan maari, kerala. i've

grown into my own person.

when i left you, i had no purpose.

i was lost, my thoughts fluttering

in the wind with no resting place.

now my tongue cannot form the

dialect it was so carefully taught,