One of my favourite smells is melting ghee
wafting from the kitchen in strong gusts.
Growing up, we have come undone in the
company of fresh ghee, regaling tales,
mixing ghee with sparkling sugar as an
accompaniment for my mom’s chapathis,
a spoonful of ghee dissolving like a whirlpool
and melting right in the middle of the sambar rice,
adding a bit of ghee to the kids’ health mix
and inventing funny names for the cereal,
dollops of ghee for the Diwali sweets,
oodles of it mixed with all the savouries,
the flavour of it crackling on our tastebuds,
a simple meal of ghee rice with mango pickle.
When I picture the good old days, I can taste
the tenderness of my friend’s homemade ghee,
and licking it off my sweetheart’s fingers.
Ghee, our natural moisturizer;
No wonder the Gods in our temples were
appeased with ghee abhisheka.
~Kavya Janani. U
This poem was first published in Modern Literature magazine on October 19th, 2024.
If you love my poems, please purchase a copy of my poetry books here - https://linktr.ee/kavya.janani
You can read my other freeverse poetry here: Freeverse Poetry by Kavya Janani. U