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Saturday 28 January 2012

SLOW SEPTEMBER

Moonlight fell
one drop at a time;
a face moved 
from nonchalance to joyous
and back
in a thousand frames;
and between sigh of relief
and sigh of longing 
slumbered a cluttered, cluttering century;
it was the slowest September 
in remembered history. 

[from the collection 'Stray kites on string-less days]

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Friday 27 January 2012

THE HEALING EYE

The unguent that cures doubt
the pill to dispel sorrow
the bandage that sets right misread-twists 
the injection against leaving
the inhaler that un-congests heart
the as-gunaya that gives bliss:
that’s love’s gaze and gaze-reception
from beginning to end,
through a century and a moment.


[from the collection 'Stray kites on string-less days]

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Thursday 26 January 2012

In the line of duty

Some say it’s just a job
And others in chest-filled proclamation
Burst a badge called ‘for the betterment of all’
Some say nothing at all,
They do and die
And all, without exception, are tagged with agency:
‘I chose!’
But there’s a bark that wasn’t recorded
A whimper lost in translation,
a tail that doesn’t wag;
‘God made man in His own image’
they say,
but perhaps the Egyptians got it right.


*Pic by Kani Pr of two bomb-sniffing dogs who died in an explosion.

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Wednesday 25 January 2012

BIRTHINGS

All my walls are worded
the eye-sore by-product
the confused graffiti
the heart-write nevertheless
of being
waiting for a window to open
just a square inch 
so a liquid universe can pour out
and clean slate:
how I live for these re-birthings!

[From the collection 'Stray kites on string-less days']

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Tuesday 24 January 2012

A KOAN UNTOUCHED BY RAIN

Under the umbrella
stopping the hard rain
drenched in
sil-suwanda white,
I saw.
Had I sinned, I wondered,
had I not?
Was the distance to exit lengthened
did I get closer,
was composure wrecked
or resurrected?
I do not know.
The mind came to a halt
before her.


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Monday 23 January 2012

Daha-Ata Sanniya PLUS

The humours in their pernicious gatherings
spit and pout, visit and nibble
and body and mind
in their imperfections
shiver, sweat and weep
their physiological discomfort
and take their birth-right endowments
of faith and belief
as per custom and ritual of the age
gift as appropriate to the expiator
‘doctor’ to some, ‘gurunnanse’ to others
equipped to exorcise disease-clusters
clothed in anxiety and credulity;
some are healed, we know
but bodies and minds
are ready prey for pharmaceuticaled greed
gentlemened now as science
and not vilified as hogwash
in the political economy of cultured medication,
a sanniya in its own right
with more than 18 manifestations

Inspired by the photography of Ishara Kodikara

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Sunday 22 January 2012

Knowing

There will come a moment
when words and claims,
misgivings and coyness
things spiced and things dialed down
are irrelevanced
and in that pin point
on the road map
of longing and reticence
without interface
without the million questions
about the what’s-not-said
I will look into your eyes
and will know.

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