Genovese, Bombay

Genovese, Bombay

What brings you here, Genovese basil?
How did you send your roots down this dusty Bombay asphalt?
Whose hand let your seed slip on this busy road?
Did a bird carry it off from a fancy pizzeria's backdoor?
When did you find home and call this place your own?
Why does no one notice you, half-wild on the curb?
Where do you mean to grow, and to what delight?
Which plates of fine pasta go without you tonight?
Maybe this alien soil preserved you, let you survive.
Or maybe you've lived past your prime, untapped, ungarnished!
I'll pass your 'aangan' every day.
I'll say hello, wish you well.
I'll take your picture and put it on the gram,
hoping they find the same voyeuristic charm.