Whirlwind of Spices

A whirlwind of spices

Can make you cough

The powder gets breathed deep into your lungs

It tickles the back of your throat with its wings

A whirlwind of spices

Can make your eyes water and twitch

The particles dissolve on your pupils and make them itch and burn

A whirlwind of spices

Can make you feel nostalgic

your mother is holding your hand as you stir a big pot

A whirlwind of spices

smells like a restaurant explosion in the kitchen

hot and exciting

A whirlwind of spices

Flutters down on your skin

Like someone is blinking on your arm

Someone with spices dissolved on their pupils

For this poem, I had an original draft with the same topic, but I used re-imagining techniques to revise it, and this was one of them. I wanted to make the reader feel like they are at home, and help them really imagine what is going on by using sensory details. I tried to really explain what it would feel like to be in a “whirlwind of spices.” This was really interesting for me to write because as I was writing it, I tried to put myself in the mindset that I was in the middle of it all. Just watching from a safe spot, and thinking and feeling everything, but less dramatically then everyone on the outside.

I used repetition in my poem to remind the reader the setting, to keep bringing them back to that one concrete image that is like a break from all the abstract. I kept thinking about the sensation of spices burning your eyes and nose as I was writing this, and also the feeling of it glittering down on your skin.

-Anya Patel, Class of 2023