Aluth Avurudda

Recognized in customs
togetherness and giving
sharing and forgiving
new clothes and freshness
holidays and holidaying
the solemn and carefree
overflowing gladness
and burying of inconsequentiality 
this Avurudda
the true New Year of the nation
is a solidarity marker
where auspicious 
is wrought of oneness
a one-moment match-strike
a one-moment partaking
one-moment anointing 
from Devundara to Peduru Thuduwa
across random boundaries
and fantasy line,
it’s a Sinhala thing, a Tamil thing
but not forbidden to anyone else
either in observation of receipt 
of kindness and gift,
it is the annual renewal
of nation and citizenship
affirmation of history 
and heritage
the foundation 
of all our tomorrows.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha, and published in THE NATION, April 14, 2013]

Matulu Crafts

Coconuts we know
King Coconut too
we know of timber 
King-post and such
we know shell 
as firewood and ornament
ladel and cup,
intricate weave too 
for decoration and roof
oil for the lamp
and for meal
flower for vinegar
for headier brews 
and decoration again,
kernal for relish
for milk, sweet 
‘gravying’ textures for tongue 
and this,
this retiring substance 
kindle-fare 
no less ‘ornatable’ gift
of the giving tree
in a thrice-blessed land
where thanksgiving is rare
and worship reserved 
for gods of lesser narrative. 

 

[Inspired by the photography of Chandana Wijesinghe, published in THE NATION, April 7, 2013]

Lotus

A faraway flower
a philosophy and alibi
aspiration and proxy
a touchable touch-me-not
in the anxieties and logic
in the clasping and love
in the moment and illusion
of our fears and exuberance
ordained and disrobed
plucked and offered
in a withering seen
but unacknowledged:
a keles bloomage, then.

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Brow

If eye mirrors soul
then this eye also speaks,
in its complexioned
and uncomplexioned tone
in accompaniment twitch
to voice and eye-speak,
in worry lines
and skin-bits
between hair strand
saying words held back
and at times slipping
the word not meant
but brow
like eye
can be closed with fingertip
with word
silence
or kiss.

 

Un-coloring unnoticed

From SONGS FOR BALACHANDRAN I

What moon was there that night

was it crescent shaped or full
what mothers’ breasts went dry
what eyes were turned away
what in the thrust and withdraw
was left behind,
what was taken
what were the colors
of imagined tomorrows
and why did time un-color
these massacres
boy,
did anyone tell you
did you ask
did you wonder?

[From the book 'A child by any other name' by Malinda Seneviratne and Sandra Mack]

Autumn leaf in a leafless branch lattice

Pic by Sakuna Gamage

Two-dimensional capture
of multi-layered story,
calls for third-eye reconstruction
of solitude and fall
stillness and contrast
a heart in a barren universe
an error of nature
a peculiarity that wrecks average
an eye-tease graphic
a narrative of our days
our formalities
and our ‘neverthelesses’. 

[Inspired by the photography of Sakuna Gamage]

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Other floralities

The earth will bloom
in the union
of water and sun
in the cohabitation
of heart and sinew
for blindness will not color-blind
and that which war removes
life’s remnant will recover;
will fade, yes
will gather dust, yes
wilt as all things wilt
die as all things die
but in interim splendor
survive the bludgeonings
rise above suffering
please for a while
mark for a while
the infinities
of human thanksgiving
in the clasp and yield
of these other battles
sweet in unscented fragrance
less tender to touch
but as soft to eye.
 
[Inspired by the photography of Chandana Wijesinghe]

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