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