Sushi Bar

["Carter" Road is a famous promenade in Mumbai. "Bandra" is the suburb it is in.]

Fridge-like lit, the box
is no cooler than the Carter air:
so why converges Bandra here?

Orphaned by its Japanese,
its singing and squeaking
by a bicker in Hindi are stifled;

the soft apprentice, untaught
to sell his fish by noise,
sells soft words for hums,

and a shoal caught
in his selfsame bay
in a roll of sticky rice.

Flashing curtains draw
curious eyes to rifle for
a Japanese face;

kitchen commands the ears
for the turn of
a Japanese phrase –

but soft, so soft:
perhaps no words, but whispers
and grunts of creation.

Arigatou, he sells
after customage,
to a grateful stammer of
arigatou gozaimas'.

Critiques: 1 and 2