MY OLD HOUSE

Painted by: Kalyani Rama

Memory dances down a spiral...

Bird feeders are hanging all around me. Wooden nest boxes are up on the fence. I see blue jays, red cardinals, goldfinches, black-spotted downy woodpeckers, and rose-breasted grosbeaks in the garden. I listen to pensive mourning doves singing in the lonely, still afternoon. I look at the ever-active, black-capped, cheery chickadees. I spot Thoreau's bluebird flying with the sky on her back and the sunset orange on her breast.

Tree swallows are nesting in my garden.

I planted that cinnamon-bark river-birch tree...This house also has a night full of stars like that distant Wisconsin farmhouse...

My walls are decorated with Bangladeshi tapestries. Recently, I have learned to make those milk-white coconut sweets too.
"Come to my house
Oh, my honeybee,
I have stitched a quilt for you,
And kept aside the rice.

I will give you 'shali' flat rice,
I will give you 'binni' puffed rice,
I have bananas from my garden.
And homemade yogurt,
made only for you.'

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I am giving away my house keys to the next owner. And I am thinking how my Othoi and Nitui used to love those pumpkin-flower fritters from my orange-color garden.