An Urban Woman’s Saree Sojourn

City bred, her tongue tied to foreign languages

of which she has concocted personal versions

to help her get by, she has no ooru or native place

come summer or winter, she has to stay

and smell the malli or kanakaambaram

through the fumes of urban life or she could open

an old cupboard containing sarees that have been gifted her

by women from different times who fought their battles

in those very sarees and bled, sometimes to death

and rest her face against their victories and defeats

drape herself in their tears and laugher

their hopes and their despair

and wonder who after all she might be

as she wears those stories.