A Walk In The Garden I Poem by Savita Tyagi

Jungle Jalebi

Under the bright sunshine of early summer
I walk around the villa
My new home of few weeks in the Middle East
The brick pathway was hot and shimmering
Burning my feet through slippers
In a preview of bacon fries days of summer ahead
The wild flowers and ever greens around compound villas
Softened the blow of heat and domesticated the desert in the front garden
I watched the lavender bushes with their mauve-blue spikes
And breathed their delicious mint fragrance
Fanned in the air through palm leaves
Curls of red berries on a native tree
Looked like copper rings blazing in fire
All of a sudden the mind had raced
To the open lands of my native country
Projecting some little images playing underneath the tree
Their coppery faces burning and crackling with laughter
The dusty berries clenched in their sweaty hands
I stood there melting with nostalgia and hot sun
In some ways Bahrain had brought me closer to my roots
The climate, the people, the food and the culture
Every thing was conducive to absorbing
The shock of moving to a foreign land
Once again in trying to understand my identity
I felt like growing constantly
Ready to embrace the world as my own
And being a tiny part or it where ever I go
I walked a little more trying to recall
The name of the fruit still locked
In the paradise of childhood
Finally my anguish from memory loss was relieved
When my husband, provoked by his own sweet memories
Uttered the word 'Jungle jalebi'!