Sometimes I hear
snatches
of Sinhala
folded tight
like betel leaves
stories
that involve
a heroic deed
soft slokas
stitched ‘tween
the sheets
a mirisgala
for sorrows
from the 16th
century
a printing press
for second-hand
prayers burning
in Kochikade
recipes
from the
Sri Lanka
Broadcasting Corporation
repeated very slowly.
– Masii
I read this again today and remembered that pause where they would tell you to go get your pen and paper ready to write down a recipe and play music and then begin the recipe …very slowly. Aunty Mona would walk in through the open front door with her weaved bag of groceries and my mother on the GOH chair would exclaim ‘what Mona…. what the hell is wrong with Stanley?’ and shoo me out of eavesdropping distance’ Childhood in Sri Lanka in the 70s.