Rekha Mehra has lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood since 1986 with an interlude of five years when she worked for the Ford Foundation in Delhi, India. She came to DC in 1984 to work as an economist in international development focused on issues related to the advancement of low-income women.
Rekha has written poems for many years and been published in the literary magazine Oberon. Her writing has benefited from classes taken at Politics and Prose and The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She is currently working on a collection of poems “Refuge” that reflect life on the Hill—its rich and evolving cultural mix, politics, and nature along the Anacostia and Potomac rivers.
Fresh
The slim honey-eyed,
corduroy-clad
gentleman
just ahead of me
in line
is brown,
gray,
dapper,
dignified.
What?
Is that backward
lingering look
for me,
in my errand-chic
blue jeans,
rumpled tee?
Yes, it is.
Unmistakable.
A low, slow
second glance
over the shoulder,
interested,
admiring,
inquiring.
I am uneasy.
Look at that, he says.
Bagful of oranges,
perfect green apples,
radishes—wish I
could eat
like that.
You should, I dare,
holding his gaze.
Nah, he says,
shaking his head.
Cost too high for me.
Sandra Beasley is the new curator of “Poetic Hill,” following the retirement of Karen Lyon. Beasley is a resident of Southwest and the author of four poetry collections. You can reach her at sandrabeasley@earthlink.net for questions and submissions (1-5 poems).
