Aisha HassanThose ancient cobbles hum
with heat long after sundown
the shrill cry of the boy
with the thermos full
of hard boiled eggs for sale
the donkey pulling the cart of
bananas – refusing to move
as the doodh wallah on his bike
delivers the milk door to door
And here is rain that is wretched
incessant and grey
and garam aandey are just for breakfast
and usually runny
the donkeys are kept
in sanctuaries or by the sea
and milk and bananas are bought
in sterile supermarkets
Take your bacon sarnies and give me my poori halwa
keep my aandey garam
until I go
back
Aisha Hassan is on the ten-person shortlist for Primers Volume III. ‘Garam Aandey’ is from her shortlisted manuscript Why I hate guavas. We’ll be showcasing the work of all the shortlisters writers over the next two weeks, so check back to read more poems.
Aisha is a writer living and working in London. Her play Pickled Mangoes was selected for the Tamasha comedy scratch night performance at Soho Theatre in June 2017. She is currently reading for a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and is working on her novel.
Add your Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.