‘The Most Modern Criticism’

Forgive the sun and everything around
Tumultuous cries you heard and sound—
Like the upheavals of the new criteria
Never reach the capitalist’s ear

Humans are dragged away, to beautify—
The city and country side, to fortify—
The nation’s pride
The ‘most modern’ way to efface ‘life’ world wide

Youth dwell in the blue light night
Old take refuge in the lonely homes for the aged
Childhoods grasp the segregated humanity
Never to associate with the lower echelons of the society


Anthropomorphism is no more the feature of Africa’s savage tribe,
But the blue cross’s stimulating attitude
Rats should be protected and bred
Human-kind’s slogan: ‘Cats should have sophisticated bed’

No warmth for the lover other than the radiation that a mobile emits
Virtual is virtuous
Nature is sin
Pastoral melodies of the global village we live in.

Intercourse

Under the carpet of wind,

Beneath the leaves of turf in the garden,

There was a fragrance of rain drops making love

To the dust!

With(out) love?

Contrived maneuvers of the world
Brought boundaries between continents
Constructed cultural molds
Separated the soul-mates


Normative strands of society
Engendered a new species of nihilism
Liberty caused the death of piety
Endless progression ended in isolation


Knowledge took away happiness
Freedom, the relationships
Learned: Without love “I am only a resounding gong
Or a clanging cymbal.”

Heritage

I entered the age-old city for those joyous moments
And to watch the historical monuments.
I see a well, huge, but found water nowhere!
And cracked everywhere
Reminds those withered lips of a woman untouchable
Hoped for a drop of water in the hot noon at this well? Or for a merciful Touchable?

A rapacious school lying lonely and full of void
Alas…whose unholy feet might have emptied its mind?
Remember! That untouchable foot not yet saw your heart
Only the eaves of your court
Do not live forlorn and dejected
Humble yourself like a school boy to be once again educated

What happened to the eyes of this huge deity Ancient?
For whom are they bleeding at the moment?
Is it for those who were crushed under the wheels of your chariot?
For the relentless genocides you perpetrated for the thirst of the dominant?
It must be for your sons who deserted you for the capitalist
And those left your cracked breasts to swarm and pest with greedy quest!

My Struggle

My home had been destroyed to its centre
There is no other fort for me on this earth to enter
Now in the middle of the white- see in a boat for life
Nothing is seen except the racist vortex, too rife!

You have mocked at my life, made me “uncivilized”!
The wounds of the colonization still bleed--
To keep indignant humiliation in my heart of gross
Martyrs are still hanging to every withered tree juxtaposed to the Cross

Your girlhoods swung next to the hanging corpse--
Of my father! Bridges are balanced between the dead blacks and white cops
I was broken into peaces and scattered further haws_
As Death failed to find those particles through the optic glass

My sisters died heartburn selves--
Mothers gave birth to your slaves
You built your wealth on the rotten corpses of my children
Now I dismantle your power, even in the world of modern!

I turn Red and bloody to celebrate my negritude
Though the world had not yet bastardized, I do it one-eyed
And the vigour of my struggle as I scuffle with the White- multitude
To restore my self-dignity for a future Black world with my own fortitude!

Still Wet???

Still wet with those tears, the words of Dalit literature,

Eyes of its scholars, Disturb the black and white.

Never was a past but could be the future,

Sure, to change the present, for we go on fight!

Struggle to step out of pain, to exhume the life

Still warm the bloodied corpse in the heart of the community,

‘The man who saw tomorrow’, died to fortify

Fight for the respect and self-dignity.

Rebellion grows as sapling raise to slash out the grain

The coffins crack open to break the skull of Manu

Those fingers built the nation will now pull down—

The grand monuments to launch the egalitarian…

The sweat that fertilized the land to green

Now will turn Red to wipe out the lives

As soldiers of Pharaoh plunged down as the swarm—

Of honey bees…your communities fall as autumn leaves!

Living Corpse

I fondled her breasts, she dint respond

As if her husband was making love to her

She was cold and motionless

In that intermittent pain and pleasure,

She experienced only pain of body,

When I too had incomplete pleasure of sex!

I looked into the depths of her eyes,

As a farmer does into the dark hollows of the summer wells

I could read the intensity of pain__

That might have made her succumb

To the lidless eyes of nights,

And uncertain joyless days!

Her supple body reacted indifferently__

To my dark wishes of night without much protest.

For many, that would have been the strongest aphrodisiac

Made them desert their wives of honour

To make another night with the body without spirit,

With the corpse that is still alive!!!

He Who Never Sleeps or Slumbers…

I slumbered for a moment at a tender age of thirteen, it was just a siesta

I woke up and looked into the mirror

Found myself in the fourth “Ashram of India”[1][i]

I was not worried but was filled with displeasure

All my youth that swings between the innocence and forbidden knowledge

Has gone in a day dream

Love and its blessings that purportedly merge

With life disappeared like ashes in a stream

I was alienated like a wild bird that suffered the human touch

Gloominess of honeymoon invaded my thought

I roamed like a pup that lost its way to her master’s home

Pagan-worshippers, heathens and dying souls have entwined my path.

I started to retrospect into the unconsciousness

Of the day dream and unable to blame them

I was troubled by the feud of the lost charm of youth but I am faultless

Though they are not guiltless, I mention not; since “I am that I am”

I was chased by Evil in a deserted cul-de-sac

How can I escape? My virtue failed to help

In a world where sons of Belial rule and Satan tries to tempt Christ

Where is my help?

I saw You in the nook of the God forsaken lane

I found life at the dead-end

Is that You who restored all the lost blessings of youth’s love--

To my life! How can I believe that my life began once again from a tender childhood?

Everything is brought back with heaps of blessings to Job’s quarter

To let me know that it is only me who slumbered but not You

My Master, it is the time for me to bear fruits of “your flavour”

Together in love blessed by You!!!

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[1] In Hindu philosophy, human life span is divided into four ashrams. These are Brahmacharya, Grahasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa respectively. The Vedas define a specific purpose for each ashram. The particular ashram dharma is observed in different natural stages of human life: childhood, youth, middle age and old age. Fourth ashram would be the old age in which the man gives up the worldly pleasures and dedicates himself to the spirituality to attain salvation.

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The Last Moment

I don’t know where I am now
But surely I am in this world:
The world of pain and woe,
That stands forever like a scaffold.

They say I lost my memory
I don’t have any memories…
But definitely they would feel sorry__
To know that I remember a few secret lovers.

I am waiting for one of those lovers who visited mine
Home and removed my wedding band in the bed of darkness__
Would come to take me away from this asylum
Since they say I am insane!

But no one came yet__
To break these chains;
No one would ever come__
Because this moment is my last in this world!

Repercussion

I was lonely on this bed looking not into the skies__

But into the indifferent roof of my room for years!

I was claustrophobic and gloomy without any touch,

Any breath other than my own and any movement much.

He came to my bed like a male hawk slips into the nest

He took me into his serpental arms, how soft?!!!

For a moment, I was engulfed by the warmth of his chest;

I died in suffocation in the moment next!

Apocalypse

When you peel off your memories__

From my heart, it bled helplessly to the centre of the earth!

When you burnt your image,

That I carefully saved in the apple of my eye,

It’s flown into the unknown darkness of the Canadian valley!

When you crush the melody of your name__

From the curve of my lips, it spilled accidentally into the vortex of Red Sea!

When you crumble my thoughts, wither my compassion,

Make me stifled, subdued and half dead,

I disappear into apocalypse to intimidate the world!

Wings Unclipped

I saw a sparrow, walking near the pond

I wonder how she is so fond__

Of Preening herself! She loves every feather

Of her tiny wings and preened to get ready to fly further.

She flew high in a moment and came down again__

Watching that I generously offered some grain!

She picked it quickly like a peasant woman in a harvested field and __

When I tried to catch her, she flew away leaving my favour behind!

Next to the Wall

“Let the light be turn off
Till the light in me is put off”
For I would be unknown once
In this darkness before the dangers pounce!

For I was born unknown
And death, the life’s canon!
I would live and die forlorn
I sob for I leave the world alone!

My pain is as deep as the anguish_
Of my eyes but too brutal the love--
This world has shown, poisonous as asps__
And destructive is its move

As the world suffocates in void
Dies in separation after my fall
For I hope the better life next to the wall
I welcome the death that invades… pain to avoid?

Crushed in Spirits

I meditate much of the night,

I sleep and fail to see your angels in the day light.

I close my eyes and never move,

I neglect your children looking for love!

I searched for you in the temple of God,

I notice not, your shadow in the hearts of those crushed!

I bathed in clear waters to reach heaven

Of lately, I found the ponds of your tears in the lands forsaken!!

I vainly searched for your love in the skies above

But I failed to notice that my tears have already honored your feet__

In the dust, where they always walk among the poorest

Father! to thy "LOVE" i bow!!!

A bunch of your thoughts bloom every day…

A bunch of your thoughts bloom every day__
In the vase of my heart before the sun’s ray__
Falls. How sweet to know that there is someone for me?
Sweeter when it is none other than you!

A spark of delight to see you out of my zest
As if I stepped into a land knows no caste
Devoted never less than a feminine Igbo to Christ
My mission always runs towards a socialist.

No success for the our zeal around
A wish to mold__
The society to live and die not as chauvinistic__
Though Long ago we were stigmatized quixotic!

Stays back at home, but no venture
Life is Stoical, for our love has no future
Says no place in grass but in cloud nine
I live in death for I trust in Heaven!

Ocean

So short is the life to love you long.

So light are the words to express the pain__

Of heart in separation!

So weak are the winds of joy to pull out__

My deep sunken heart from the ocean of melancholy!

Body and Soul

I dreamt of it that landed me into the garden of smiles
I ran miles
To escape the body
Ever since it was just broken bones and scattered peaces of flesh
I flew into the skies where those quiet birds fly
Happy would be my soul for we left “that” body behind
I just turned towards my “soul” to say that ‘everything will be fine now!’
But there was no soul, only minced meat!

Pain for Change

So lonely and abysmally dismal
Grotesque is the postmodern personality
No love for the humanity
And live virtual

Let it be short and we meet in heaven—
As I fear the long life
The other world, I believe, there be no strife--
Between the continents and cultures in vain

Let the human live with human
Not the poor by adulation and the rich by fraudulence
The irrevocable mistake of the creation has a solution
I believe not in here but somewhere unseen

I invite the apocalypse that terrifies—
The earth to engender the peace
Innocuous be the other world with grace
All those exploited, it fortifies.

Earth endures all that hostility
As a mother endures the pain of episiotomy
We shall give way to the change of possibility--
To await redemption for the suffering humanity!

The Unborn

I remember no joy of my child

All behind the shelves of guilt

Suffocates in a dreary day dream

Thoughts were heaped into the elegiac stream!

I give no birth to my child__

For she remains in my womb forever

I wish never should she suffer the worldly intricacies

For I love her most and allow her not to cloister!

Estranged in dismal sunrises__

Though she always fights the premises__

Of pain

Let her sleep in my womb unaware and unborn!

Distortion of the World

Is writing celestial? I wonder! Though is of world,
Knows no decay as the kingdom of Christ!
Full of assurance of future__
As the beauty of your unripe breasts,
Dismantles the bricks of the each structure of the world
To immerse in your womb to kill the chronic distortion of human passions.


Can’t I be juxtaposed with you? My love!
My womanly life had ceased our union forever?
The world suffocates the human with cluttered orders.
Rabbi’s teachings are lethal poison to the tender heart of yours
Go not away from me, you my queen! Make me your mistress__
Of love before the civilizations bound to obey.


Know the drawn periphery to our thinking; control over the mind’s travel,
Destroyed the human in human as the blood of Calvary effaced the sin!
If earth is not too broken and divided massively
If these chains are not entwined your mind or
If this moment is the last before the apocalypse,
We would have unfurled the banner of triumphant love!!!

The Epitaph

At least when the epitaph of my stone
Feels the ray of your unsealed "light"
Even the hollow of my cracked bone
Would thaw and tear to give you warmth!

Love… Unswerving

When the desert sheds its last drop of tear
Woods attend the funeral of green
Oceans are pregnant of broken bones
Still…your innocent smiles thaw themselves
To gratify my thirst.

When the nations be plummeted
Evil rules the humanity
Morbidity evades the minds
Rotten corpses lull the earth into deep sleep
Even then your arms will give me warmth.

When the birds seldom sing
Nature dies in mute
Music sinks deep into the sea
Joy loses its memory
but your heart shares love for me...

Fight the World!

I see change neither in the earth and heaven

Nor in our love and its intensity

God divided them by the horizon

I search boundaries for our love in vain

Anticipating the power of our love

The cultures equipped themselves with myriads of segregations

Still unable to move or remove—

Our love, but stained their hands with blood flowed from our wounds.

On the dooms day stands as a culprit, the world

But the ultimate defeat on its face will be mocked at

And our love stands victorious in heaven

Glorified by men and angels

Fear squeezes out the energies of body and mind

Society causes the repression and the depression

What is the weapon to fight against the systemic stand?

Is it invented or it has to be?

What you need is not strength but freedom

What you should have is not knowledge but thinking

You need to struggle against those in disguise of friends

And fight with the world!

Sexton Had at Once Rolled the Joys of Life…

Sexton had at once rolled the joys of life into spheres
Thrown them into the seaweed on Dead-sea
Life is now withered in the Siroccos of the “cast”
Frozen and deadly…as I see the funeral of my own

Gloomy the life is as mind of a Black in Carolina
Clouds had assaulted my eyes till the deluge
Of the Pacific eliminates the myriads of lives in her lap
No hope… no fate…the future seems to me in yellow light.

Lived and died not to near the ablutions
Untouched even at the corner of necropolis
Abducted by the multitudes of sinful distress
Now shirked and expelled through the Tornadoes of untouchability!

No learning… no unlearning…stifled as a statute
Out side the temple…away from the school
Inside the hollow of my room, abandoned and estranged,
I would educate the world to wake up from its stupor!

The Dark Future

No memories of mines, for pain
Humiliation will never be wiped out of skin
Haunts like a Dalit boy’s childhood
Shrunken everywhere in the landlord’s household.

Mothers feed the enemies of their echelon
Bonny fingers squeeze her breasts to feed her own
“Sons” dwell in the incestuous lust
The nation suffers the wound of the outcaste!

She lost her honour in the green
Never she succumbs… no trace of whine
Searches her valour in the light of the Red
The future is entwined by the Black thread.

Fights with the hazardous shackles of society
Dismantles the powers of the mighty_
Colonization’s delusion, nationalism to be plummeted
Her own society to rule the planet.

The world reinvents itself through Her mind
Genuflects to her womb, the humankind
On them, there will be no stigma to mark
The future is Dark … the future is of the Dark!!!

"Holocaste"

Uncouth…like the primordial man’s first death
Morbid as the beauty of Dickinson’s poetry
Oppressive as the cathedral melodies of every sunrise
Replica of the fear and innocence of scaffold and knacker’s yard,
Disruptive legacies of degenerated world are still unflinching
In my claustrophobic horizon!

I Shall Wait

On this rock to its edge, I stay and wait
For you my love without a sigh in mob
Fairy queen went in the veil to the cathedral’s top
Now is found in the dirt extinguish all her bait
I stay and wait, I shall hope

Revolutions suck the young blood
Invaders shed the tears of exodus
Mysteries excavate the life in Bermudas
Homelands became unknown to landlord
I stay and wait, I shall hope

He said He would come, centuries behold
Humanity waits For Him and I must
You said you are for me, I trust
I shall wait here on this rock until the cemeteries enfold
I stay and wait, I shall hope

Though you bless me to Hamlet’s castle
This rock stays mount Olympus in fate
Will you come dear…? Will you…? Too late
After the rock becomes churchyard’s cradle
I will stay in beneath and wait, I shall hope in Him and you