Delivery instructions for the courier

a version after The Sumerian*

Go to Nibru. My mother’s worried. She can’t sleep.
She WhatsApps my cousins. Although we’re in lockdown,
please deliver my package to her so that she’ll know
I’m able to shop wisely. For myself. For her.

In case it’s hard to find my mother, let me describe her.
Her name is Šimat-Eštar. Single-handed she keeps
order in her father-in-law’s house. She might be out
shopping for her neighbours, the old ones, the isolated.

Let me give another description of my mother.
She’s like butter, flowing ghee. She knows how to look after Inana.
She bakes banana bread and takes it around
hot from the oven. She’s a sourdough mother.

Let me give a third description of my mother.
She’s repurposed tins as shiny flowerpots along the path.
She’s an abundant window box, watered and seeded.
In Spring, her hands are promising moist.

Let me give a fourth description of my mother.
She’s both the irrigator and the palm tree shading from the sun.
She’s the heady rose. She’s a well-stocked bird table.
She’s the compassion of leaves. Her tips are always good.

Let me give a fifth description of my mother.
She’s early fruit from the hedgerow, blackberries and the slow
overflow of jam jars. She’s an omelette from an ostrich egg,
feeding twenty around the table, all golden richness.

Courier, when you stand in front of my mother
tell her Lu-diĝira is in good health. His computer works.
Look, he sends you soap made from goat’s milk.
She’s my mother. With my parcel, tell her.

*The message of Lu-diĝira to his mother https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.5.5.1#

L Kiew is a London-based poet of chinese-malaysian heritage. She works as a charity sector leader and accountant. She holds a MSc in Creative Writing and Literary Studies from Edinburgh University. Her debut pamphlet The Unquiet was published by Offord Road Books in 2019. She was a 2019/2020 London Library Emerging Writer and is currently working on her first collection. Follow her at @l_kiew