Vegetarian Poem by Sivakumar Ambalapuzha

“How much for sardine? ”
I enquire.
“The name is Madonna”,
She responds.
“Choose ten chubby”,
My demand.
“Will turn nineteen,
the next month”, snaps she.
Wrapped half in and half out,
With a Madonna-smile string,
The packet, she tenders.

But did it slip?

While she cleanse,
Wife, tosses to the cat,
Those with rotten gills.
With a tongue acerbic, chops
The man who regrets not,
The wasted bucks.

Swear me,
To stop eating fish,
Fried without oil and masala
In the microwave mind,
Swear to be vegetarian
From tomorrow,
To be true.
(Malayalam: Sivakumar Ambalapuzha)