nidikumba (that you may sleep each night soundly; that your nipples might flush
fertile in the clutch of your matelove’s firstborn; that their fingers might furl
feather quiet in your fist in the dark; that blossoms may light your bare feet
to the ocean each morning, thorning your soles and begging that you tread
gentle, gentler, gentlest, gently, gently—
komarika (that you may find solace when spurned, your fingers searing
supernova around the perimeter of diyas; that even when clay ceases to calm
you will be caressed; that when you ride to battle there will be balm
keeping vigil in the tent; that your hair will grow back as often as
you blade it stark to your skull in mourning, in mutiny, in signaling
beacons and transports of joy—
maana (that you may reign; that your kohl-eyed mudraggled tribe may proliferate;
that paddylands and jungles will be allies to your advance; that protection
will be your brightest enchantment; that each breach you condone
will confer the highest honor; that you may conceal weaponry
in every deepest depth—a feral tongue, a viper spine, unshed tears
and testimonies; that every call to arms will contain
the bellowing rage of the battle tusker—
karapincha (that you may learn of smokewarm backkitchens, of ancients abandoned,
of inherited knowledge, of pestles and mortars drumming the flagstones of interior
courtyards; that you may reincarnate on every trek along the dryhusked paths;
that hearthmaking will transform safety; that incense will charm the altars
of your choosing—marigolds and olinda seeds and tamarind pods and eternity
cached in a flight of corrugated leaves—
gotukola (that you may be hungry never; that you may restore lost visions
and rebirth the eyes that vanish from sight; that you may craft one thousand
livelihoods and count heads duskly by doling bowls of boiling kola kanda;
that in scorched earth centuries you will spring forth verdant and
wild, wilder, wildest, wildly, wildly—
(Editors’ Note: “On The Plantation of Daughters” is read by Erika Ensign on the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 48A).
© 2022 Lalini Shanela Ranaraja