"No Dictionary Of A Living Tongue" Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

"No Dictionary of a Living Tongue"
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
I thought of something that is in
No dictionary of a living tongue
I see a corporate room and myself
Heading a meeting and saying:
You gentlemen are not playing ball
But are playing hardball;

The day goes by slowly and yet quickly
I sort out my thoughts about my research oriented past
There is the pretty, overgrown hedge
Which my husband trimmed
Leaving me to sweep away the trimmings
There are the shootings in Texas and Ohio in the USA
Which leave me shaken
I watch Bernie Sanders on CNN make a powerful point
And I thought Pres. Donald Trump with his racist rhetoric,
Is saying it is okay to hate
Where would white nationalism leave us beautiful, multi-cultural Canadians;

In my no dictionary of a living tongue
I remember where it all ended in Dec 2003
The corporate dream to make it big
My ex-supervisor, as I have learnt, of dubious distinction and feet of clay,
Blew the whistle on me when I left a confidential message on his answering machine
Out of friendly trust
Saying that if the chair of the department
Had the balls that a man should have
He would have intervened in a matter
Detrimental to my health and wellbeing a long time ago
As history has it, I was shaken by so much of sexism in some men;

And there is another phrase which is in no dictionary of a living tongue
Leastways in the tongue of a 51 year old married woman like me
For it is not the norm to talk to white folk this way
I want to ask of PM Justin Trudeau, What's your problem, ?
And of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Canada,
What's your excuse, "Curry Nigger"?

Acknowledgements:
1. Duriel E. Harris's poem in The New York Times magazine