my grandmother by Preesha Jain

my grandmother by Preesha Jain

my grandmother
wears silk sarees
woven with soft threads from India
stained with rich indigo dye;
tiny peacocks perch in the folds
and flecks of gold adorn them like jewels
sparkling with every movement.
a red bindi sits between her brows – she’s a queen.
but in Tesco
she’s an obscurity in the spice aisle.

my grandmother
has silver hair
plaited in intricate patterns
with garlands of yellow marigolds
tucked into the strands
accompanied with a sprinkling
of sweet-smelling jasmine flowers:
the marriage of the sun and moon –
but in Sainsbury’s
she’s an oddity amongst the frozen chapattis.

my grandmother
speaks in hindi
the language of saffron mangoes,
and fragrant blushing lotuses;
it flows like the ganga with
praises like honeyed rose petals
and even the stinging cusses like a biting karela
sound like a nightingale song.
but her broken English
in Morrisons
reduces her to suspicious looks
at the pickle shelf.

Since 1998, The Poetry Society has run an annual international poetry contest called the Foyle Young Poets Award and, despite the circumstances, last year was no exception. With 15,966 poems entered by 6,791 individual poets from 118 countries, the Foyle Young Poets Award is considered the largest international poetry competition for high school students. Out of all those entries, 100 were acknowledged, 85 as Commended Poets and the Top 15 being published in an anthology called You Speak in Constellations. Preesha Jain's poem is one of those Top 15 and juxtaposes the beauty of her grandmother's culture, heritage, and background against the prejudices held by strangers who make unfair assumptions about her. Jain uses vivid and multisensory imagery to fully capture her grandmother's character while also utilizing refrain and repetition to reinforce the negative stereotypes her grandmother faces while in the supermarket.

Have you ever been judged unfairly by the way you looked?