Outside the house,
The sun is bright,
It burns the house and dries the grass,
and rains blessings to the rambutan tree,
So it bears thousands of sweetness,
For us to pluck and eat,
And the ducks under the jambu tree,
Sitting at the river bank, waiting for the tide,
And we plant cangkuk on the hard ground,
And it grows, leafy and lovely,
Under the heat,
as expected.

Inside the house,
The flame is bright,
In the sooty kitchen,
The air is painted with scented herbs,
The dancing onions on the sparkling oil,
Of the sweet curry with the cangkuk leaves,
And my mother, stirs the furious pot slowly,
And the hardships that boiled from it,
Has warmed my heart,
I am way too far from my home now,
It is cold here,
As the heat is lost.

*** Header image by Thom Holmes on Unsplash 

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POETRY | The Road, The Riddle by Aad