Kashithumba (balsam)

Kashisthumba

I was in awe seeing you
Sprouting up from nowhere
Same time in every year
In the raw soil of my village home

You decked the ground
With your pubescent rows
Of abundant blooms, in
Lilac, pink, white and red

Hence I made my pookkalam
Every onam-day morning
Big and colourful
And you made me proud

Then after the onam days
As the end of a temple festival
And as if have done your offering
You vanished

Where did you hide
All those days in silence?
Were you in your own seed
Hibernating after a heavy season?

Where have you gone
After the onam days?
Did you have your repose
At your mom’s design house?

While your mom prepare the colours
To make new new frocks
For your next show
In the coming year

I was in awe seeing you
Sprouting up from nowhere
Same time in every year
In the raw soil of my village home

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Onam – a festival of Kerala
Pookkalam – flower decoration made by flowers in the onam days (10 days) in front of houses
Kahithumba – balsam

Note: every year in spring kashithumba plants used to sprout up in our home ground from nowhere … we never kept their seeds … they will simply come out of the soil and start blooming … in different colours … in thick rows … by the time of onam they were all in blooming abundantly …As a kid I was always in wonder how these seeds stayed underneath the ground waiting for the right time to come up

Sarala