Spotlight           

Tortoise Shell Combs by Mumtaz N Khorakiwala | A Poem



Those caramel tortoise shell combs
Beautifully brown, a liquidy amber
In morning sunlight. I wish I hadn't
Taken them from granted,
When you tucked them into my unruly curls.
Remember your fingers combing
Through my tangled tresses,
Each day you'd whisper,
“Child, you are such a tomboy.”
While I'd toss my thick hair
From side to side mischievously
Until you'd hold me tight
And kiss my lush unknotted hair,
Brushing the strands into delightful ringlets
That framed my childish face.
You tut tutted…
Yet how your dimpled smile gave you away!

Until that day, when you turned your face the other way
“Grow up, you're old enough!”
My locks hungered for your gentle fingers.
How I rue, that fit of rage,
That passing storm in a teacup,
The crescent-like, speckled tortoise shell combs away, I threw.
Today, I yearn, for your arthritic, gnarled, pale,
Sinewy knobbed fingers to comb through
My locks. And yet I know
They can barely hold a comb.
Mother, how bewitching those childhood days,
Ah those times, when
You arrested my shock of hair
Under two broad toothed tortoise shell combs,
Then brushed, each strand, untangled, until it shone,
As if burnished copper were turning gold.


Batool Idrish Siamwala pens in her maiden name, Mumtaz Khorakiwala. After fifteen years of teaching English Language & Literature in Vizag, she has come back to writing poetry. Her poetry has won accolades on several online forums. Recently, she has published her own volume of poetry titled Saudade.

Comments



This Month's Top Stories

Beneath the Soaring Canopy by Angel Mary | A Poem

A Scholar's Odyssey: Neha Kumari's Evolution into an IAS Officer | Interview by Ankush Bharti

New Dawn, New Blooms by Angel Mary | A Poem

Finding Beauty in Resilience: Sommya Jain's Story of Success | Ankush Bharti

Hope is not a Losing Game by Amaan Khan | An essay

Blue by Siljiya Francis | A Poem

The Holistic Pine Now Read in 30 Countries — Independent Media with a Global Soul

Silent Reverie by Dr Nina Apra | A Poem

Mumbai Educator and Writer Ashima Syal Honoured for Using Words to Empower Women Across India

Signs of a Separated Man by Anu Lal | A Poem