Eating dinner with your parents
The surface of the పాలక్¹
reflects like a lake:
overgrown
with green envy & the nails
your mother got done just yesterday--
a special occasion. She didn’t
let me forget.
Their sharpness piercing
the silent air. The elephant
in the room,
I’d say, but I know that it
wouldn’t have made her
laugh. Now,
the chairs: the velvet faded,
though still heavy & just
as demanding.
I watch as
the rice turns cold. Pellets
hardening & we
become characters in a soap
opera: not quite Romeo & Juliet,
though, we aren’t that classy. Even
when the dog knocked
over the plate of naan,
no one bent over to pick it up. That
is to say: I’m
sorry there is nothing left to ruin.
_______
¹ Telugu word for Palak, an Indian dish consisting of a thick paste made from puréed spinach.
reflects like a lake:
overgrown
with green envy & the nails
your mother got done just yesterday--
a special occasion. She didn’t
let me forget.
Their sharpness piercing
the silent air. The elephant
in the room,
I’d say, but I know that it
wouldn’t have made her
laugh. Now,
the chairs: the velvet faded,
though still heavy & just
as demanding.
I watch as
the rice turns cold. Pellets
hardening & we
become characters in a soap
opera: not quite Romeo & Juliet,
though, we aren’t that classy. Even
when the dog knocked
over the plate of naan,
no one bent over to pick it up. That
is to say: I’m
sorry there is nothing left to ruin.
_______
¹ Telugu word for Palak, an Indian dish consisting of a thick paste made from puréed spinach.
About the Author
Saturn Browne (she/they) is a writer from New England. Her work appears in SoFloPoJo, Gone Lawn, Eunoia Review,and more. She is the inaugural Connecticut Youth Poet Laureate and an Adroit 2023 mentee in poetry. Her debut chapbook, BLOODPATHS, was published in April with Kith Books. She loves A24 films, matcha, flowers, and the mountains in their hometown of Nanning, China.