Nidhi Gandhi | Two ghazals
Turmeric
For Fatimah Asghar
I love white pooris not yellow with haldi
mom – daughter, the best, most healthful thing you could eat is haldi
I tripped on the wire of a lamp, my lips and teeth bled
to promote coagulation, dad sprinkled powdered haldi
my covid symptoms lasted 5 months
to soothe the coughing, my mom made me tea steeped with haldi
white people appropriate my Indian culture
girls at Starbucks, can I have a venti golden milk latte with haldi?
with dinner every night, I eat strips of haldi
Nidhi’s toothbrush is yellow, the color of haldi
I love white pooris not yellow with haldi
mom – daughter, the best, most healthful thing you could eat is haldi
I tripped on the wire of a lamp, my lips and teeth bled
to promote coagulation, dad sprinkled powdered haldi
my covid symptoms lasted 5 months
to soothe the coughing, my mom made me tea steeped with haldi
white people appropriate my Indian culture
girls at Starbucks, can I have a venti golden milk latte with haldi?
with dinner every night, I eat strips of haldi
Nidhi’s toothbrush is yellow, the color of haldi
Ghazal for the Ocean
For Michelle Valladares
my hot feet covered in sand, I dipped into the ocean
to get salt, my grandmother in India boiled water from the ocean
my first time at Jones Beach, I gathered seashells, clams, and glass
I also picked a dead crab, grayish-pink, cast away from the ocean
sea salt, minerals, and aloe – ingredients in a Sephora potion-lotion
if I had money, I'd drink nonalcoholic kahlua and eat vegan scallops on vacation by the ocean
old white dudes cried when Ariel was re-cast as a Black woman
relax, chill dudes, she's still a red-headed mermaid in the ocean
I used to drown in a complex-ptsd-depression-ocean
I, Nidhi, just graduated from therapy, look at me, I'm swimming in the ocean
my hot feet covered in sand, I dipped into the ocean
to get salt, my grandmother in India boiled water from the ocean
my first time at Jones Beach, I gathered seashells, clams, and glass
I also picked a dead crab, grayish-pink, cast away from the ocean
sea salt, minerals, and aloe – ingredients in a Sephora potion-lotion
if I had money, I'd drink nonalcoholic kahlua and eat vegan scallops on vacation by the ocean
old white dudes cried when Ariel was re-cast as a Black woman
relax, chill dudes, she's still a red-headed mermaid in the ocean
I used to drown in a complex-ptsd-depression-ocean
I, Nidhi, just graduated from therapy, look at me, I'm swimming in the ocean
Nidhi Gandhi is an emerging writer and MFA candidate at City College of New York. Her poems have been published in 433, Honeyguide Literary Magazine and are forthcoming in Lean & Loafe Poetry Journal. She is a 2023 Poets Afloat resident, is currently working on an interview series about emerging writers and their enculturation into the larger literary world, and will be starting her own poetry journal soon.
