“Breaking” © Crystal Karlberg

 

Diwali Crowd

My son draws a list of all he wants,
enquires from me the right spellings –
Bot-il? P-o-p c-o-r-n? Cl-ok?
Armed with the list, we deposit our blue-chequered carry bag
at the entrance and enter D-Mart
weaving our way like a drop of water
making its way to the sea
of people with loaded trolleys, heavy bags
and eyes peeled for discounts and find
along the way, ten billing counters with a queue
of ten people each deterring us from proceeding
any further. Our sparse list: bottle, popcorn and clock
holds no water any more as we trickle out
of the sea of hot breaths
chanting the mantra of ‘next time’ on our lips.

 

Preeth Ganapathy is based out of Bangalore. Her works have appeared or are appearing in The Orchard Poetry Journal, Last stanza Poetry Journal and The Ekphrastic Review among other places. She loves keeping a lookout for the quiet and the calm in the midst of the everyday hustle, bustle and noise.

Crystal Karlberg is a Library Assistant at her local public library and a speaker for Greater Boston PFLAG.