Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Devotion” By Sneha Madhavan-Reese.

---

Devotion

By Sneha Madhavan-Reese

My father broke coconuts in the laundry room

with his hatchet-like Indian knife. In temples,

they throw the coconuts down, shattering their shells,

spilling their milk as an offering, a sweet sacrifice,

for sweetness in a bitter life. But my young life

was already sweet; maybe this is why we took

the milk for ourselves. I stood at the ready

as my father made measured blows—one, two, three—

until the brown shell cracked, just enough

so he could wedge the blade in

and twist. He held the coconut over the sink

while I held out my glass. Together

we caught the cloudy white liquid, which later

we would share, savouring every sip.

---

Copyright © Sneha Madhavan-Reese

Previous published in Observing the Moon (Hagios Press, 2015).

Sneha Madhavan-Reese is the author of the poetry collections Observing the Moon (Hagios Press, 2015) and Elementary Particles (Brick Books, 2023), which was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award and was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. Her writing has appeared in publications around the world, most recently Amsterdam Quarterly, Juniper, The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, and Ricepaper Magazine. She serves on the editorial board of Canthius magazine and lives with her family in Ottawa.

---

Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!

---