POETRY

The old brick house hosted

three generations up to my mother.

In each corner it has etched a story on its old soul.


my favorite corner was an open space living room

with three tall walls and a dome-shaped ceiling

the third wall had a door to grandmother’s bedroom

with few little storages, covered by a small wooden door

low enough that grandmother could open while sitting

on the small velvet mattresses on the ground.

In one corner of the living room

there was an old red rug and a pale purple sitting pillow

that always looked like grandmother was sitting on it moments ago

and always had the shape of her body on it.


It was the summer of 1960 that I spent with her.

every morning she started her “manghal”

with few pieces of dry wood and coal

where she made a pot of hot tea

and toasted an egg with shell for me.


grandmother would walk graciously to the other end of the house

to the chicken coops and pick up a freshly laid egg for me.

eternal aroma and the taste of toasted egg,

fresh bread, freshly brewed tea with few pieces of rock sugar in it

and the sacred kindness and love on grandmother's face.

lifelong delicacy!

it's all you need to become a poet.


now after decades , I think of her

and imagine that house with the orchestra of

grandmother’s moves and voice,

in the still moments of my memory, exactly at the time

she opens the coop, and lets the chickens free in the garden

and the moment she poured my tea in the “fenjoon” and

picked up the egg from the “manghal” with ash on it.

....

 
Mahnaz Badihian is a poet and translator whose work has been published into several languages worldwide, including Persian, Turkish, and Malayalam. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines including Exiled ink! in the United Kingdom and in Marin Poetry Center Anthology amongst others. She attended the Iowa Writer's workshop with a focus on international poetry while practicing as a dentist in Iowa City.  Her publications include two volumes of poetry in Persian and a best-selling translation of Pablo Neruda's Book of Questions into Persian.  Her most recent publication is a critically acclaimed book of original English language poetry, From Zayandeh Rud to the Mississippi.