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Monday 3 February 2014

Kanneliya undertones



Pic by Sakuna Gamage
The wide sweep tells
of large things broad 
the pretensions of the wide-angle
history's grandeur 
carves the boundaries of the licit,
but in the underbrush of life
as drop and skein
a color slip and parasite
there's another weaving
smiling at the broad brush
and strident painter 
of tall tales and kings,
that's narrative too;
softer though
in the revelation
of lesser anxieties
the subtext of foliage
and processes 
passed over for comment.

Sunday 2 February 2014

Myself


Not proxy

with power of attorney,
not second-best or second-rate,
not default or consolation prize,
flawed and feared perhaps
object of ridicule
failure too
and at times
absentee landlord
but still welcome
through the doors of hurt and annoyance
a faltering voice
that is heard
even when singing out of tune,
a number one in a one-number numerology
an aksharaya that’s irreplaceable:
that’s who I am,
to her
and her,
I like to think.
 

Alchemy



Pic by Tharindu Amunugama



And those alchemists
the honest ones
for whom metal was metal
and not plastic and bonds,
yes those ancient ones
and the new
the turn-to-gold
of labor
and by way of usurpation
legal and otherwise,
did they not have eyes
or mind
or heart
to see universe in sand-grain
the elemental transformation
the exercise of suzerainty by gold
and end of day
and the happy relinquishing to silver
come dawn?

[Inspired by the photography of Tharindu Amunugama]