lei is me

Feel the people bustling past

Feel the baskets on their back

Feel the chaos, taste the food

Feel the fruit but don’t be rude.

–

Listen to the playful banter

Hear the shouts and hear the laughter 

Hear the bargains for a price

Hear them argue over rice

–

See the lanterns, smaller suns

See the children, watch them run

See the fire, in arching flight, 

Oil and flame, a gorgeous sight.

–

Smell the spices, detailed art

Sweet and spicy warms your heart

It fills you up, the fragrant heat, 

Breathe it in, that’s just this street. 

–

Slip the sample past your teeth,

Bite into it, more beneath,

Taste the flavour, buds exploding,

More than food, stories unfolding.

—

Leisan Yusupov, 2025