Laundry

Laundry

 

Laundry_Manjit_Handa

I bought few beautiful peels today.
New clothes
clean, glazed, creased and perfumed.

In summers we wear one peel
like a banana
In winters we turn onions.

In many countries they remain onions
even in summers,
may be they keep their insides cool like that.

Some people are full of fire,
they remain peeled
even in winters.

It is intriguing, the plethora of peels–
oranges, lychees, coconuts
kiwi, potatoes
corn and what not.

Some don’t even know they have peels
such as focused workmen and craftsmen.

From vegetables and fruits we learnt
to wrap ourselves in different shades and colors.
But unlike them we re-use ours
because we get them dirty with sins
and need constant purge in the elements.

We should wash our own sins
I think
Why should another human
do it for us?
Or a mother
who launders and covers her family’s sins?

Even today when I call my mommy
from a far off country
I can hear the rustle of clothes in her
left hand as she
removes couple of clothespins
that remain stuck to one or two pieces
of clothing.
The clothes that she
washed in the afternoon
and sunned well
so the family has a respectable disposition in society.

The phone must’ve rung
and she would’ve emptied the clothesline
reaching me
to tell that all is well
and I should
be good too
and do
what is expected.
(The painting ‘Laundry’ is a watercolor on a 9″x11″ hot pressed paper. This was a photograph taken by my Redbubble friend Moshe Kohen. I asked him if I could imitate it and he readily obliged. There are more lovely people in this world than we can imagine.)

4 thoughts on “Laundry

  1. lovely…both the painting and poem…how well you make it all converge around laundry…states of being, being and aspirations that become inspirations to try and remain flawless as well as remind our dearest to acquire aspirations like inspiring hand me down skills….”if I can so can you”.

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