Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad | Tea and Stardust | Poets Resist

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney based artist, poet and improv pianist. She was raised in the Middle East and was a war refugee during Operation Desert Storm. Oormila has exhibited her art and accompanying poetry in Kuwait, India, Singapore, and Australia. She holds a Masters in English and has worked in media and education. Oormila is a member of Sydney's North Shore Poetry Project and regularly performs her poems at venues in Sydney. Her work is forthcoming in the Eunoia Review and the Red Eft Review.

Poets Resist
Edited by Logan February
July 31, 2019

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

Tea and Stardust

the water begins to bubble tea leaves seeping sienna as my son, at the kitchen island tells me about science class how our bodies were forged in the stars, packed in atoms dusted on intergalactic winds beyond the arms of the Milky Way We are all stardust mum Every single one of us! he examines his little hand marvelling at this epiphany. I force a half-smile for his sake and pour myself tea, squinting through the curl of steam thinking of my morning grocery run the boys at Chatswood Chase their taunt still simmering in my head Dirty brown hippy be like!

“Tea and Stardust” was inspired by a comment made by my son, who is a very gentle boy, who still thinks that the world is a magical place. He was very taken up with the idea of all human beings being stardust — something he learned in school. I was still smarting from a racist remark that a bunch of high school kids had thrown at me earlier in the week in a shopping mall. I wrote this piece to get it out of my system.