Poem: Women, Chocolates, Icecream.
I woke up this morning with a splitting headache, pricking near my right eyebrow. It grew but became more blunt and sweet. Must be some nerve trying to sing a song.
I crawl out of my bed and lay on my sofa, closing my eyes. The phone tinkles. Priya’s text.
Do you know I read that the moment you posted it I think? I loved it. But it was perfect on its own. Different from mine. Better. Was more profound. How are you?
I cribbed but finally mustered some muscle to write this poem. The pain meanwhile was becoming sweeter by the minute. The nerve started twitching and dancing.
My head is splitting
Reality is like a rock
Still and present. Very still.
The pain is in my front lobe
Between the eyebrows
You know powerful yet sweet pain
I try to think of something nice
Women, chocolates, ice-cream
Or else I have to go and exercise
Too lazy even to dream
I just want to sleep
I am tired. I am tired.~Ashok Subramanian © 2023
For a poet, poetry is the medicine. Priya wrote these beautiful lines which I read. But my pain is sweeter. I almost started loving it.
Think of that moment
when two words became three
and then a few more
a poem was born
your first perhaps
I wonder what that poem could be~Priya © 2023
Then she wrote this amazing poetic prescription. I just realized that Chennai winter is on. I don’t need the air conditioner. Humidity attains humility when the chill sets in. She wins.
Tread softly today upon the snow
where gently she falls
and roses could grow
Let the chill of the morning
soothe your soul
as you sip from this winter morning~ Priya © 2023
I am still silent. She replies…
Women, chocolates, ice cream
In that order? Lol
I write this poem.
Woman, chocolates, ice cream — THAT order?
She laughs — not just laugh, but LOL.
I just say — It flowed.
It really flowed.
I wish I could say something different.
But they are now out there, in the open.
Why women with chocolates and ice cream?
Read the lines before, my friend.
My head is splitting in deep sweet pain.
Something really stressful.
I want to run, do yoga, and meditate.
But I write these words.
I have chocolates in the fridge
Ice cream in the freezer
… They are cold …
I wanted something warm, cozy, and cuddling.
Who comes around?
My wife. My poet friend.
Women, my friend. Women.
They are the source of solace.
Before I came here, I was safe in a woman’s womb.
After I am gone, I will be buried in another’s womb –
They call it… the tomb.
Between the two women…
I am struggling…with this sweet, deep pain.
So women bring me around.
The start, the end, and in between,
So… women, chocolates and ice-cream
That is the order I still dream.
~Ashok Subramanian © 2023
Believe it or not. My head is clear, the pain has subsided. The dancing nerve has vanished.
Priya writes:
Ahhhh love it. See you are an expert at this. just write for me and my smiles.
Women, chocolate, ice cream — in that order, I prescribe.
~Ashok Subramanian © 2023
