by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
For Thomas Thorpe
In your collection of Christmas cards
the Peruvian nativity scene stands out
newborn hope cocooned in a cradle
the snow flecked peaks of the Andes
rejoicing in the saviour’s birth.
you show me the layered papyrus
of an Egyptian Christmas card
where denizens gaze upon a star
a prayer of hope and peace
upon their parted lips.
then you look up and tell me
that in all the years that you’ve collected cards
you don’t have a single one
from the country of my birth –
not one from the mighty heart of India.
at night I dream of Airavata
the spotless white of his ten tusks
five trunks of mother of pearl
descending through the nimbus clouds
the porcelain of his body
dazzling in the morning rays.
he thunders through the troposphere
earthbound, trumpeting as he morphs
into a pachyderm of velvet blue
with lips of rose, a lotus in his trunk
held up to the arching heavens.
he alights on the Great Indian Desert
gliding through the dunes
as I wake up in this realm again
my dream of the cobalt elephant
curling in skies and sand.
you are speechless when I show you
my blue Airavata
swathed in jewelled silks and gold
racing through the Thar
a skilled mahout perched atop
heralding the coming of joy and cheer
hope for the world this blessed season
my Indian card for you this Christmas.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney based artist, poet and pianist. She holds a Masters in English. Oormila has exhibited her art and accompanying poetry in Kuwait, India, Singapore, and Australia. She is a member of Sydney’s North Shore Poetry Project and Authora Australis. Her recent works have been published in Red Eft Review, Glass Poetry Journal’s Poets Resist, Eunoia Review, Underwood Press’s Rue Scribe, The Maier Museum of Arts Journal of Ekphrastic Poetry, and several other literary journals. Oormila regularly performs her poetry and exhibits her art at shows in Sydney. Find her on Instagram: oormila_paintings.