Two Poems
Painting: Jonas Lundh
By Kamalini Natesan
DNA be damned
What did I gift?
My DNA, is that all?
Is that my child,
Bundled chromosomes?
What of the love,
Tender care, nurture?
Darn genetics!
The visage, some knowledge,
School, college.
White noise all.
What I did offer,
My milk, my speech,
My pain, my tears,
My all, my all.
Listen kid,
You may not like me,
But love me, you must,
Sometimes.
Still, for now, in me,
Senior flag-bearer, entrust.
Darn genetics!
You are me, you are not.
My solitary ache,
Convert, subvert, overhaul.
Be someone.
Darn genetics!
Take what you will,
Mould, reshape, unfurl,
Life.
Take what you will,
Discard not all.
Tangible, intangible,
DNA – be damned!
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Ego
Throbbing, immense,
That voice thunders,
I quiver, I hide,
From the bane, recoil.
Bent double,
Ego winces, it cringes.
Has me in its hold.
They say, I am no good,
Loud, hammering, relentless,
Yet I rise, march on,
Head held high.
Ego sustains,
Endlessly blameless.
The child runs,
Abandoning home,
Want more, says he.
It hurts, I bleed,
Askance – why me?
A wounded mother’s ego,
A weary, sublime echo.
The child revisits,
Foibles excused,
Humbled, now timorous.
Relieved, love embraces.
Shaken, not forsaken.
Ego minus ism.
Friends stay, they go,
Places arrive, disappear,
There’s sea, there’s sand,
Rivers, their beds,
Iridescent valleys, mountains,
I ride them all, Ego rides along,
Stand by, on a night halt.
Rears its head, every once,
Held aloft, I dance.
Quiet when unneeded,
Restrained when unheeded,
When and where,
I learn, it watches,
I watch, it learns.
This Ego, is it me?
Or often, am I, Ego?
Bio:
Kamalini Natesan is a teacher of French and Spanish. She is a trained singer (Hindustani), and regularly jams with a group of musicians. She has been blogging since 2013. Travelogues, book reviews, and poetry are her favorite genres. Her short stories and articles have been published in magazines such as Life Positive, New Woman and Parenting. Recently, her essay about her son, entitled ‘Probing the Dermis,’ was published in a book, Twilight’s Children: Chronicles of an Uncommon Life (Readomania).
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One Response to “Two Poems”
The second poem especially resonated with me, the child leaving the nest and the complexity of conjugal and filial bonds in general sticks out for me.