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| Sorpotel and Goan pao. |
 |
| Chickens from across the border. |
 |
| Moon hanging low at dawn. |
At 6.15
the lights are still on
The moon hangs low
receding on the horizon.
I wait for the poder.
Tilku was not picking my phone.
I step out
in the crisp morning air.
On the lonely street
a man forages for plastic bottles
which he collects
in a huge black plastic bag.
The chicken van rolls in
from across the border.
Crammed with fat white hens
for a Sunday lunch.
They don't shriek
as they do in Kharghar
fluttering wildly
as they are clamped to hooks.
I look away
guilty of being party to
this tragic spectacle.
As is my wont
I walk to the end of the street
where it meets the Sangolda bypass.
Buses with casino crews
-lads and lasses from the North East -
hurtle past,
many on their phones,
from Shu Ting's assembly line.
Street dogs race across the road
shattering the silent morning
barking and inciting
other dogs to bark too.
The burly gent who walks his dog
always avoids looking at me
perhaps because we commiserate
with his wife.
The man who works in Bangalore
and spends his weekends in Goa
waves as he drives out
in his car with his family
probably to catch the 7 a.m. Mass.
A man from Nepal with a bag
shuffles up the street
NH 66 at his back.
He stops to talk to the watchman.
Hesitating to use his language
until I pass by.
Hark! I hear the distant
cycle horn of a poder.
Minutes later Tilku from Bihar
sweeps in on his scooter
loaded with an array of fresh Goan bread
A black umbrella
tucked upright at the back.
He is ready for the rains in Goa
(or what's left of it )
I offer my cloth bag
and receive the morning's offering.
If it's Sunday it must be sorpotel
e pao.
(Sunday
27 September 2026
Porvorim, Goa)
Notes
sorpotel: Portuguese dish made of pork
e pao - (Portuguese) 'and bread'
poder - (Konkani) breadman
Kharghar: Our place in Navi Mumbai
Shu Ting: Chinese poet (b. 1952) who wrote 'Assembly Line' published in Chinese in 1980.
We: My wife and myself.
NH 66: National Highway 66
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