The bitter gourd salad is one
Of my mother’s favorite dishes,
Where she cuts the bitter gourd
Into slices, fries them, adds a whisk of salt
And brings them to the table.
And how beautiful is every section of
A bitter gourd that carves out
From her outer border delicate petals
That only bloom when chopped
On a kitchen cutting board.
Oh look at that long sinuous journey
An embittering time of loss and regret, when I failed
To see the flower beds God had deftly planted,
That bloom most days inside a salad bowl,
Holding aloft the beautiful antheses,
Of the road not traveled.
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Published by meandererworld (Dilantha Gunawardana)
Dr Dilantha Gunawardana graduated from the University of Melbourne, as a molecular biologist, and moonlights as a poet. He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Botany, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Dilantha lives in a chimeric universe of science and poetry. Dilantha’s poems have been accepted for publication /published in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Canary Literary Magazine, Boston Accent, Forage, Kitaab, Eastlit, American Journal of Poetry, Zingara Poetry Review, The Wagon and Ravens Perch, among others. Dilantha too has two anthologies of poetry, 'Kite Dreams' (2016) and 'Driftwood' (2017), both brought to the readership by Sarasavi Publishers, and is working on his third poetry collection (The Many Constellations of Home). Dilantha’s pet areas of teaching and research, include, Nitrogen Fixation, RNA biology, Phytoremediation, Agricultural Biology, and Bioethics & Biosafety. Dilantha blogs at – https://meandererworld.wordpress.com/ -, where he has nearly 2000 poems.
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