A love note from Galle

Forbidding walls speak of pride and fear

rooftops cascade into languid courtyards

where conversation shards are gathered

by ghosts with amputated voices

artisans with the full weight of their humility

in soft voice dignity detail the timber and pigment 

of lifetime and moment

the tinkle of cutlery and crockery 

drains out of elegant eateries 

tiptoe away along shocked cobbled stones 

frozen with noonday heat

and the slow step of a passerby

bypassing the narratives of the forgotten;

the afternoon is sliced with lime-fragrance

love climbs improbably ladders

only to be consumed by insatiable reptiles;

there are words and there is silence

the unplanned pregnancies of our ignorance

complement the curves of propriety;

I take it all in and breathe it all out

swallow words as voice tapers off 

as moment defers to reflection;

you crash unwittingly through 

debris and fairytales,

stand before me and in a matron's voice 

object and deny in practiced firmness

and then, as though to alleviate sorrows imagined,

smile and indulge in the play of fingers --

those distant relatives of a heart

by decree of reason, jailed. 

Love and patience

The one and the same

it is not a country

that to the impatient

offers citizenship, no

love is as close as faraway

as immediate as never 

but alas!

in ignorance 

laced with conviction

which in turn with doubt is soaked

we write lexicons:

love is such and such

so too patience: such and such;

and open out hearts to bliss

and to insanity our minds.

Snakes and Ladders

A favorite game 

came through poetry and innocence

was companion to movie dates

that sudden shower 

reminding us that droughts do end;

it was silent witness to silences

this game that's so ancient 

that we forget easily

it never was meant to end

so we can move through encumbrance 

chase and flee

and through it all

at improbable intersections

arrive.

Independence Square

One layer of song

one of independence

one of a crowd that couldn't care less

a layer of failing light

one of a deadline too

there are enough wraps then

to insulate 

and enough heart to love.

Indika

Temporary white flags have been gathered 

and yet in a corner of the mind a terrible loneliness 

when now and again the eyes close

you still come to mind Indika

Is memory amenable to cut-and-paste

of searching for ourselves over wine 

of a debate heated and yet rolled out with love

when amid cataracts lie hidden the lotus that bloomed ?

In a moment by the hands of a clock narrated

all this will come to a stop by and by 

this is known and very well too, and yet

machang, it is so hard on the heart. 

[Translation of Wimal Ketapearachchi's poem 'Indika'] 

Mercury Girl

Mercury must be her element
for nothing,
not fingers, hands or words
can catch or keep

Sure, she holds my hand
but only if I ask
and even then
I wonder if I've intruded
exceeded invitation

She says she feels small
but I feel smaller

She thinks I want to give all
when little is all I have to give

She thinks I understand
and feels safe
when I am ignorant
and the only think I know
is that I am happy

She thinks I can't wait
for heaven to arrive
if just once a month
when heaven she delivers
without a word

she frequently confuses
regularity with frequency
calls for randomness
but insists, 'once a month'

'You talk, I listen,' she says
and so I listen to silence
and wonder if she hears at all

But she's all about ephemerality
of strawberry sundaes
used books and children's stories
destinations she has never heard of
and futures I am not a part of.

Ode to a silly girl

She loves soccer

and has her favorites
eyes glued to the screen
a half-smile on her lips
she knows stuff
like the inevitable penalty shoot-out
regardless of score line.

She loves humor
loves to laugh,
and most times
she laughs twice;
she admits,
'tube-light'.

She knows the textures
and fragrances of love
but gently disavows:
"I don't know and I don't want to know."

So I ask and she says "no"
but in her sweet silly way
trips over the "no" that means "yes"
laughs and reaffirms boundaries.

And we talk of things known
and unknown
bend conversations
into safe houses
and comfortable spaces,
she does not dismiss
and neither does she embrace
"not underserving, but still, 'no'" she says
but she does not know,
this silly girl,
that proximity or distance
metaphorical or literal
no difference makes
for silliness is another word for wisdom
and label means nothing
for one who has abandoned mind
and swears by the heart