Yala

Pic by Ishara S. Kodikara

Differently coloured sibling
non-identical twin
of city space
and urban things,
territory of the timeless
the hide and seek
and seek for hide,
target and shoot,
spotted meat
and jaw-jaw
fang and claw,
vistor’s unmercuried mirror
reflecting but unseen.

[Inspired by the photography of Ishara S Kodikara, published in the UNDO Section of 'The Nation', August 5, 2012]

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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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Life is brick-made too

The one-bedroom, toilet and kitchen,

rudimental household-start,

the many layered mansion

the forbidding wall

fortressing against intrusion and envy

the house of the ill-willed and generous

Tyrannical and warm-hearted

the corporate towers of the blush-less

the temples of justice

where collar-colour and bare-necked

get castled or acquitted

as per swayability,

the residences of gods, demons and belief-systems

those articulators of faith and credulity

yes, parliaments too

they are all blue-printed in brown

frilled with scar and callous

obliterated even

in labour’s immemorial clays

unseen, unseen, unseen.

[Inspired by the photography of Ishara Kodikara]

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