{"id":3725,"date":"2023-03-14T04:29:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T04:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=3725"},"modified":"2023-11-07T02:40:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T02:40:55","slug":"mangoes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-4-winter-2023-2024\/mangoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mangoes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sowmya Somaraju<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

For my grandmother<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The house came into view.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The house with a sandstone-colored roof, and a rusting gate.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the backyard,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

drops of sunshine hanging from bending branches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Everything was the same:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the couch cushions,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the dull-colored linens on the bed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And in the bathroom,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

one single bar of soap.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything was the same,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

except for one thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t see the fall of her saree nor her long salt and peppery hair.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seemed as though the silence in that house\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

missed her loud voice too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A voice everyone feared<\/span><\/p>\n

except me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her hands that told the story of her life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How she plucked the mangoes\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And held them in the fall of her saree,<\/span><\/p>\n

to give me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That summer, the sun shined brightly,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and the mangoes even brighter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The big tree, tired and groaning,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ready to let go.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shades of red and yellow danced to a song of silence,<\/span><\/p>\n

drops of milky tears,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

forgotten to be plucked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0*saree- a garment consisting of a length of cotton or silk elaborately draped around the body,\u00a0<\/span>traditionally worn by women from South Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Sowmya Somaraju <\/strong>is a biological sciences major on a pre-med track with a psychology minor, graduating in 2026. She writes, “I’m originally from India but currently live in Montgomery, New Jersey. I have always loved writing, but the poetry workshops in Professor November\u2019s Creative Writing class really showed me how much freedom poetry provides and how it is possible to write a truly powerful poem without complex words or ideas because, sometimes, the simplest stories can lead to the most meaningful pieces.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sowmya Somaraju   For my grandmother   The house came into view.\u00a0 The house with a sandstone-colored roof, and a rusting gate. In the backyard,\u00a0 drops of sunshine hanging from … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":0,"parent":3525,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3725","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMangoes - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-4-winter-2023-2024\/mangoes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mangoes - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sowmya Somaraju   For my grandmother   The house came into view.\u00a0 The house with a sandstone-colored roof, and a rusting gate. 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