-Brian Mendonca
Uncle Edwin
goes 'tap' 'tap' on his typewriter
in the porch by the door
as the road lurches downwards.
El Capitan is no more,
replaced by a shopping mall
as hotel Taj Mahal and
hotel Villena confer in mid-street.
Eyed by Tadeus, fortified by Bertsy's
-where I had my first rum with madcap Zeno.
Cafe Xavier disappoints,
with its jazzed-up interiors
Smells of amotik, tamarind, and red chillies
Peddem's cajus, ponos and ambo
Hanuman Soda still holds its own
though the nose of the blue Mercedes
is missing.
(2004)
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Uncle Edwin: the poet's mother's brother who used to stay in the ancestral house at Gauncavaddo, Mapusa; El Capitan: along with Alankar were the 2 cinema houses the poet used to frequent in his college days in the 1980's in Mapusa; amotik: typical Goan fish dish, hot and sour with chilli and tamarind; Blue Mercedes: the blue college bus of St. Xavier's College, Mapusa; Poem published in Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa (New Delhi, 2006)
Uncle Edwin
goes 'tap' 'tap' on his typewriter
in the porch by the door
as the road lurches downwards.
El Capitan is no more,
replaced by a shopping mall
as hotel Taj Mahal and
hotel Villena confer in mid-street.
Eyed by Tadeus, fortified by Bertsy's
-where I had my first rum with madcap Zeno.
Cafe Xavier disappoints,
with its jazzed-up interiors
Smells of amotik, tamarind, and red chillies
Peddem's cajus, ponos and ambo
Hanuman Soda still holds its own
though the nose of the blue Mercedes
is missing.
(2004)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uncle Edwin: the poet's mother's brother who used to stay in the ancestral house at Gauncavaddo, Mapusa; El Capitan: along with Alankar were the 2 cinema houses the poet used to frequent in his college days in the 1980's in Mapusa; amotik: typical Goan fish dish, hot and sour with chilli and tamarind; Blue Mercedes: the blue college bus of St. Xavier's College, Mapusa; Poem published in Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa (New Delhi, 2006)
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