Two poems by Pooja Ugrani

Reading poetry

I jump into your quagmire

wading through greys 
like a sieve, between fiction
and places that aren’t.

Stained with what sticks 
I wish the rest remains 
water under a bridge.

Tell me, 
did you jump in naked too?

Vaira mookutti 

keloids shine alongside stones,
survival of the right nostril
threatened by her maamiyaar
who aggressively strives
to home in a fat pin
into allergic skin
with an almost,
maternal enthusiasm

she rescues herself
resorting to
talagaani mantram
after the third attempt.

decades later,
her great granddaughter yelps
as she pushes it home,
satisfied that she looks
vintage, traditional, kitsch.

Vaira mookutti : diamond nose pin
Maamiyaar : mother in law
Talahaani mantram : pillow talk

Pooja Ugrani is an architect and a teacher from Bangalore, who writes from memory and personal experience about the small everyday things in life that intrigue and engage her.