Shobhana Kumar
An Amnesia of Words
She has never been good
at writing recipes down.
We taunt her
believing she refuses to divulge
a secret ingredient
and sets an impossible bar
for the rest of us.
“Watch,” she says
and begins to weave her charm,
taking pinches full of spice
and handfuls of others.
Of course, we lose track.
But we are eager
to make a book of her signatures.
Posterity is on our minds.
She flounders each time
we ask for measurements.
The book is a disaster.
She dies, leaving us
with the eternal aftertaste
of mistaken proportions.
We are reminded of her wisdom:
when you commit memory to paper,
it disappears.
Shobhana Kumar has two collections of poetry and six books of non-fiction covering industrial histories, corporate legacies and biographies. She is deeply influenced by haikai art forms and her book of haibun, titled All the Roads Come Home is forthcoming by Red River. She is Poetry Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint, Yavanika Press and Interviews Editor with Humankind Journal.
She has never been good
at writing recipes down.
We taunt her
believing she refuses to divulge
a secret ingredient
and sets an impossible bar
for the rest of us.
“Watch,” she says
and begins to weave her charm,
taking pinches full of spice
and handfuls of others.
Of course, we lose track.
But we are eager
to make a book of her signatures.
Posterity is on our minds.
She flounders each time
we ask for measurements.
The book is a disaster.
She dies, leaving us
with the eternal aftertaste
of mistaken proportions.
We are reminded of her wisdom:
when you commit memory to paper,
it disappears.
Shobhana Kumar has two collections of poetry and six books of non-fiction covering industrial histories, corporate legacies and biographies. She is deeply influenced by haikai art forms and her book of haibun, titled All the Roads Come Home is forthcoming by Red River. She is Poetry Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint, Yavanika Press and Interviews Editor with Humankind Journal.