Surexit Mangala
From the mountains to the sea
“Nothing about me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.”
Base notes
Roots
Burning eucalyptus leaves
Garden rubbish, a box of matches and an unsupervised career in backyard arson.
Frankincense after Christmas Mass
Faith was as intense as the incense and about as lasting.
Old, discolored paperbacks
Books were my childhood friends blah blah.
Middle notes
Dissolution
Coffee, coarsely ground
Back then it just meant Amma’s kiri kopi. I now take it black.
Tobacco
Answers were scarce, ciggies were not.
Ozone
Attempts at meaning through a lexicon of true or false.
Top notes
Recreation
Blotter paper and ink
The long route back to language passed through more than one kind of paper.
Petrichor
Rainy evenings and 80s soft rock.
Marine Drive after five
By five, the salt has settled on my skin and the train has cut through another conversation.