A Grandmother’s Love

By Snehaa S

What does a grandmother’s love look like?

Love looks like gnarled thumbs

piercing an orange

releasing a citrus caress

into evening air

spooning segments into waiting mouths

of her eager grandchildren

Love looks like forgetting how

an orange tastes

for it’s been so long since she peeled one

All for herself

What is a grandmother’s love?

it is making sure of everyone’s happiness

and making do for her self

what does Love taste like?

it tastes like capsaicin

of capsicum smothered with chili

just for Thatha because he once

mentioned the pakoras lacked the spice

of his childhood memories

What else is Love, you ask?

well, it is also the silk of her old sarees

the faint scent of Ponds’ in dream flower

how fitting for she who is Lotus not just in name

but also in character and heart

Love gives everything to us

and asks for nothing

I remember standing before her wedding portrait

beautiful bride immortalized in sepia

and realizing she wasn’t always my Grandmother

Nor my mother’s mother

She was a woman of her own

And still is and always will be

Her love taught me what Love really is

It isn’t what Love looks like

It is what Love does

that truly matters

and that is why

I wish I could’ve done more

to make her feel as loved

as she makes us all feel

For Love is what Love does.

By Snehaa S