That led to the butcher's shop
No longer there
Where hung slabs of pink-reddish chunks of meat
On hooks
Where first I saw blood, innards, and bone
And skulls of cows
Thankachen's shop in the center of the junction from which
we always bought provisions
Sugar, salt, parippu, payaru, sweets, rice, and wheat....
Whose youngest brother was Unni who was my age
O junction, you had your drunkard MR (Radha, short for
Radhakrishnan)
And your own version of the village idiot or madman in
Oollen Paakkaren
You had your vegetable shop which also had cycles for rent
and two small ones for children, one red and one green, as
if just for me and my sister
Next to it was the ration kada with its green planks to shut
it with and the sacks of rice, kerosene in cans, wheat and
kadala in rough brown sacks
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