Detlef Seydel

.

Toddy  Trip

(Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023) 

Why did I not count them?

All my trips to Kerala?

Where Lord Parasuram

Threw his battle axe into the sea

Slicing “God’s own country” from the depths of the flood

Maybe I lost count the tenth time.

Now, on our way to Kottayam

The little hut lay huddled 

In the windy landscape.

My friend said,

“There’s some kind of tropical wine here. Try it!”

And stopped the car.

We entered the darkness of the simple hut.

I saw country people 

Bent over milky glasses next to some bottles,

A quiet gathering of tainted lives.

The smell of fried fish rolled out from the kitchen,

Tapioca and rice heaps in heavy sweeps,

Lobster, prawns, chicken and beef, 

The flesh of God's executed creatures

Garnished with green and red chili peppers.

The whole painting of sharp sins.

The pearl-colored fish in the pan

Looked at me glassily.

The innkeeper slammed two dripping glasses onto our table.

The neck of the liter bottle of cloudy semen

swung between two of his fingers.

Was that the haze of tropical wine?

A smile on my friend's face

Filled the rancid air.

“It is not least the remains of honeybees

that gave it the taste of the wilderness that awaits us!”

Curiosity fought against disgust within me.

The first glass – a musty taste

The second glass made me Tarzan

The third gave me the buzzing anger of early morning bees.

There was soon a fight next door.

Two grim old men tearing each other's shabby shirts.

The barking of street dogs from the rotting gaps of their chattering jaws.

Had the sweet blind devil entered their disquiet souls?

The humming of morning bees

In the dripping barrels with the silent ones.

Heroes high up in the swaying palm trees.

Maybe that explains the twitch of anger in their throats.

On that peaceful, sunny afternoon.

Back in Berlin I read:

“This type of wine has – at some point – a mood-altering effect.”

Quiet,

We stumbled out into the oppressive heat.

Detlef Seydel, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics  has  published : “Damn! Dear Josephine, I love you. Albert Langen and Josephine Rensch - newly discovered testimonies”, Munich 2014; “Reading book 124” (drawings by Johannes Grützke), Berlin 2014; Contributions to anthologies (including the austrian cultural magazine “LANDSTRICH”); Günter Bruno Fuchs Prize winner Made countless visits to India since the beginning of the millennium. Detlef says ' The poem Toddy trip came to my mind while traveling recently  with my friend Gopi Krishnan Kottoor along the Kerala backwaters.'