The Cardiologist's Daughter
Kochicheril Moni , Natasha
Primary Category:
Literature /
Poetry
Genre: Poetry
-
Annotated by:
- Kohn, Martin
- Date of entry: May-21-2018
- Last revised: May-30-2018
Summary
The Cardiologist's Daughter offers readers a mélange of
memories, retelling through poetry how the poet's mixed heritage (East Indian
and Dutch) fused into her unique identity-- as a naturopath daughter of an M.D.
father and R.N. mother. The strongest poems in this collection are about her
relationship with her father-- as the title suggests. But other poems about her
interest in science, growing up in the southern states of the United States,
and other relationships-- with teachers, friends, other relatives, nicely fill
out this collection.
The opening poem, The Cardiologist's Daughter Returns Home, recounts her father's heart attack, ending with these lines: "The bypass cannot/be bypassed and in returning/life, there will be death and/with it, tissue upon/tissue blooming/the rows as rose/a garden of flesh/raising a bed/of stitches (11)." Later in the volume, she recalls how, in Once, a father, the crook of his arm, her father plays with her after work: "After the heart patients clear, he swaps stethoscope/for the necklace of his daughter, stocking legs/looping his throat, as she, on his shoulders/steals second supper: curry potatoes,/basmati rice, cucumber yogurt from his plate (27)." In How We Sketch the Departed, a poem about the death of her Dutch grandfather who " commanded thousands/of conifers for his Dutch nursery (47)", she recounts first the death of a butterfly: "That night the butterfly scorched /in the woodstove due to inattention, mine/and the butterfly's. Flame sputtered as smoke/formed a pillow for the insect's final sleep-- black/smearing the azure that lined its wings (45)."
The opening poem, The Cardiologist's Daughter Returns Home, recounts her father's heart attack, ending with these lines: "The bypass cannot/be bypassed and in returning/life, there will be death and/with it, tissue upon/tissue blooming/the rows as rose/a garden of flesh/raising a bed/of stitches (11)." Later in the volume, she recalls how, in Once, a father, the crook of his arm, her father plays with her after work: "After the heart patients clear, he swaps stethoscope/for the necklace of his daughter, stocking legs/looping his throat, as she, on his shoulders/steals second supper: curry potatoes,/basmati rice, cucumber yogurt from his plate (27)." In How We Sketch the Departed, a poem about the death of her Dutch grandfather who " commanded thousands/of conifers for his Dutch nursery (47)", she recounts first the death of a butterfly: "That night the butterfly scorched /in the woodstove due to inattention, mine/and the butterfly's. Flame sputtered as smoke/formed a pillow for the insect's final sleep-- black/smearing the azure that lined its wings (45)."
Publisher
Two Sylvias Press
Place Published
Kingston, WA
Edition
2014
Page Count
89
Commentary
This is the first of 3 books by naturopath, Natasha Kochicheril Moni. Her more recent books are Nearly, a 20-page long poem, chapbook, by dancing girl press (2018) and Lay Down Your Fleece, chapbook, by Shirt Pocket Press (2017).