A days walk up the street
Article Submitted By:
BashkaJacobs Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 Time: 2:34 PM
A days walk up the street in Penang
In this part of Malaysia
on the verdant island
of Penang
Live hundreds of Tamil
Indians
With their cultures
Lilting cadences
Their saris and brilliant
Satins
Hindu and Catholic shrines
Here you can eat on banana leaves
With your hands
Or at elegant north Indian
Kashmir restaurants
but the streets are
peppered with kiosks
or tiled floored
little restaurants
and my
favorite is at
a corner
the
Open Cafe'
where i order
my morning lassie
Delicately flavored
with rose water
and I sit and talk with
a Catholic Tamil owner
and watch as his squeaky clean
Image remains unruffled as the
Riff raff fills his store
He smiles and beams
I sit and talk with him and
he offers me a rich
cardamom
spiced tea
He calls a woman out from
Behind the curtain
where she has
been watching
and introduces me
to his beautiful
young wife
whose arms are
covered with bracelets
and an amazing
amount of hair
She smiles she
only knows a few words
In English but manages
to say
I cook for you
The merchant laughs and says
Yes another day
Then whispers that she is
a wonderful cook
and arrange a time when I
Will eat with them
I leave the shop and walk along
The cement streets colored with
Chalk good luck mandalas
that Hindus have done
in an early morning
Propitiating the gods
The music saturating
the street is
From harmoniums\and sitars
and as i
I pass near a Chinese
temple where
Girls in short skirts
Eye the handsome
huge eyes
of the
Black skinned
Tamil boys
I smell the fragrance
of India mixed
with the heady
aromas south Asia
I watch as a frail
Indian beggar child
cleans out
The votive sands at
The Chinese
Temple
where
precious
Firecrackers
are set off
and
the Indian
child is thrilled
and admires him
I watch him as
glee covers
his face as
they explode into
The air
Oh the joy in the
child's eye fills me
up to as i slip
some coins into
his shirt and he looks up
and
radiantly smiles
surprised
and i smile back
Satisfied I walk
towards Chula Street
Then on to the market
to buy food
and
to watch
the never ending
circus of
Foreigners getting
drunk or stoned
at the local
reggae club
I watch while the
Indian guys hit on the
Swedish girls
Hoping for some
lessons in sexual aerobics
or maybe just a chance
to stroke
all that golden hair
The Swedish girls sit
smiling in tight
tank tops considering
the possibility
I watch the Chinese boys grow
Red in the face
as they drink more beer
Than they can manage
This at the same time
the call to
Prayer resounds
from the mosque
And Faisel and Chmed
Answer the calls to prayer
From the minaret
right next to the bar
And I am filled with joy
Yet again at all the
cacophony
And I celebrate
My self a Brooklyn
Jewess poet
Enjoying the nuances of
The salty hot
delicious flavors
of this days
simple journey
up the street
About the Author
Penang has always been where
the cultures almost collide but slip
seamlessly aside each other
like giant tactonic plates. The crow
went often sat in kitchens
cemetaries, gardens until she
was perfumed with the aromas
and stuffed with
recipes and then
returned to work in Bangkok.
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Submitted: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 Time: 2:34 PM