bare land

In the bare land
shadow of
an aged tree

Sun
sand
mirage

Sun
sand
mirage

Every dot of the sand
hot with memories
of an old wilderness

Letters were black

Letters were black

So are the words

They became a platoon
And started the war
Burned entire pages
Anthology
Language
Town, country

I have gone underground
Fearing poems may
Betray me and kill

Letters were mean
So are the words
So are the poems

The Road to Noyal

1



Road, a blazing black strip

And a wayside sign

- Noyal, 20 KM

Sleeping in midday heat



A lust burned inside me

Seeing the raw magnificence


I urinated in the dry soil

Amorously touching her with my

Warm arch of urine

Slowly something spread in me

And somehow felt, I am pregnant


The village

Grown in me, minute by minute

Second by second

Along with her history and hope

Small huts, bright colors

Graceful Tamil slang,

Sugar cane fields, dry lands, buffalo, rats

Grasshoppers, crows, bullock carts

Tube wells, tamarind trees, bicycles

Folklores, culture, music

- An entire village within me


2



Yesterday night, burning

With feverish hallucinations

Yelling and vomiting

Everything I carried inside for centuries

Came out, making my room the village


Small huts, bright colors

Sugar cane fields, dry lands,

Buffalo, rats

Grasshoppers, crows, bullock carts

Tube wells, tamarind trees, bicycles

Filled my room


The road to Noyal coiled and coiled

In my room like placenta

I shut tight my eyes and lay curled

Warm, as in a womb


A horn shook my room

And a wayside sign glowed

In the beam of a passing truck

– Noyal, 0 KM

*



Noyal – A Tamil Village

am raining


Rain is rain is rain
drizzling on my face
dripping through my eyes
to the gutters
of black and white memories


GO

FIND UR WIND
HUG
GO WITH IT
TO THE HORIZON
STILL
ORANGE WITH
THE SMILE OF
FADING SUN

its a shadow
of me
of my liquid self
i flow and flow

A KISS
MELT ME TO THE CORE
WHERE I STILL AM ALONE
WET
LIKE A MOUSE
IN A RAT TRAP

I TOUCH U IN ME

am raining

Earth
Glows on the
Tip of a green leaf

Where
A sparkle of dew drop
Dangles

The halo of wet soil
On a frozen
Moment