Lesh Karan



My Mother’s Kitchen

/Ingredients/ sunlight, a generous splash the gentle simmer of bhajans vegetables, greenhoused in Melbourne an ancestral pantry, pulsing with pulses, nuts, aata and sundry the (e)motions of mortar-and-pestles the sturdiness of a tawa extended-family-sized pots, multiple her pista barfi, un-substitutable …

Posted in 112: TREAT | Tagged

Perspective

Some days are metal I see my face reflected – cracks in the steel I write to rupture I feel layered until I read me – I am flat and abstract not cut onions dripping milk – I use the …

Posted in 106: OPEN | Tagged

Vermeer as Performance

after Yoko Ono’s ‘Kite Piece 1’ 1. Earring Piece Sketch the ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’. Snip it into pearl-shaped pieces – as many as the original’s value. Wear a cut-out on your left earlobe (tack it on with a …

Posted in 103: AMBLE | Tagged

Year 2329: History Test

1. Respond to: In the 19th century, womankind had threadbare hands. Response: True. With no power, women’s hands toiled. They laboured on any of the following: a) hand washing + scrubbing b) hand sweeping + mopping c) hand cooking + …

Posted in 101: NO THEME 10 | Tagged

Chasey

It’s 28 April 2020 and my husband shows me a video of his cousin growling from the pit of his lungs at his two-year-old son: You’re arrested for being brown. The son runs, a question mark for a face. You’re …

Posted in 100: BROWNFACE | Tagged

The landscape changes

we are not lovers, now climbing a jagged mountain on weak joints can one avoid twisted pain? making an effort widens fault lines climbing a jagged mountain on weak joints I crack when not seen making an effort widens fault …

Posted in 92: NO THEME VIII | Tagged