1. Taken from class
Their rooms taken over
Lines drawn
down book-spine
and text Between threat
and dare, it’s so
much a game,
all join in! All-y All-y in free!
Math and grammar
on the run. Cutting class
for Follow the leader.
Skipping grades
for (“do this!” “Do that!”)
Someone says. Tongue-tied
and finger-pointing
taught. Answers sworn
to a stammering halt
the…, the ... lesson learned:
no one to answer
for it. Shouts and slaps
spat out from above
You duck you hunker
You slip away.
Martyrdom, the Prix
de Triumph.
Death -- a graduation of sorts.
2. Questions hurt
The answers… to put hurt away
But Hurt hurries hides
holds back
Hits!
Not just knees
and bridges,
but buttressed belief,
all ties
to a wider world
House full, kerosene lit,
ruin…
rises on hind legs,
bares its teeth.
Rasped breath resounds
under ground
No helping hand
pulls you free. Hillbilly,
no odyssey
brings you back
to set things
right. Dragged
from a soiled blanket of roots
and stones,
a youth no one claims
3. The Museum
(of the Insurrection)
houses: the cries
of the bereft
On alternate Tuesdays,
at midday,
in the inner courtyard,
actual participants
reenact (with assistance
from the audience)
a Maoist public execution
Drawn out with khukri
Or the military’s
clandestine rapes
4. Everyone knows
where Abel is.
When Cain stands near
who dares say?
Rumor has it –
among the ash and gristle
there’s a list
with names entered
meticulously
Rumor has it --
with only one killer left,
all killing will cease.
Ashes, ashes, we all…
Bow down to the Killer-in-chief.
Brother to us all
-Nepali Times #357, July 13, 2007 |
