Saturday Market Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair
Saturday Market
Saturday market in our place
inadvertent like a poem unplanned
like sudden summer rain
They converge all over the place
with wares from where no one knows
My mandate from home is to buy
tomatoes if really cheap
I end up buying everything of the season
into my shabby bag
that has seen markets and markets
passed through duty-free airport shops
the world over
worn out, its belonging
to a super-market in Dubai
almost totally erased
A man with two kids
buys local snacks
I ask him if they are twins
The answer is negative
From the looks and height of them
he is really a fast worker
and that is what my nation needs
Dogs circle my legs
extremely friendly
Rabies is an unknown thing
this evening when a western cloud
rues its infertility to fecundate
the vast lands under its reach
Women strolled the streets
shopping bags in hand
free from their eternal worries
a drunkard husband
or a misbehaving son
They smelt good
like the evening breeze
of that irresistible October eve
Oh, where can I rest
in this cacophonous medley?
Do I need rest at all
when the world does sing
and am listening
on my armchair of accidence
not of grammar but of existence
where men, women, dogs and ware
just materialize
without my asking
on an evening
that doesn't understand
time and space?
Amen
(cont.) i like these lines but.... and am listening on my armchair of accidence not of grammar but of existence where men, women, dogs and ware hmm? i think you use accidence with 'literary/poetic license, Sir MN. ;) but i like the alliteration. i had to look up the definition: accidence: : a part of grammar that deals with inflections
The use of accidence was spontaneously accidental. But when it occurred, I liked it and kept it.
(cont.) fertilize. there were no insects to fecundate flowering plants literary make fruitful. Was it the women or the bags which were 'free of...worries' and also 'smelt good'. smelt is a fish! did the women smell 'fishy'? ? (cont.)
(cont.) Perhaps the snacks are for the parents, so they can work faster! ! ! i can remember when birth control was promoted in India; maybe it was just American manufacturers who promoted it? ? is Rabies and cloud in the same sentence? ? and you use TWO less-familiar-to-me words in one stanza! ! ! ! ..rue and fecundate; is fecundate even a 'proper' word? ! by golly, it is! (cont.)
Population explosion is still a big problem for India and birth control measures are encouraged and promoted. I was trying some humor which perhaps misfired.
But, IF YOU say i love you to KELLY, people might talk! i won't. i believe inadvertent is not quite the correct word to use re the market springing up. there may have been no 'central planning', but i bet a lot of individual planning was done. 'everyone'/'the vendors' just happened to plan to do the same thing: make money! ! we usually use one shabby bag, one not, and a plastic cooler. (cont.)
What I meant by inadvertent is perhaps further elaborated in the last six lines. Thanks Bri for taking this poem into your list.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/2/2024 8:13:13 PM # 1.0.0.1119
(cont.) ...& i say: you left out I, and use wares, not ware, though ware is used in other applications (not job applications) . to MyPoemList. bri ;)
I believe you are referring to the use of wares (in plural) instead of ware. I had the same doubt and used the word wares after checking the net (wordhippo.com) where it is said QUOTE However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be wares e.g. in reference to various types of wares or a collection of wares. UNQUOTE. Thanks a lot for dwelling upon my poems in such detail. I appreciate it very much.