Three Poems
Painting: Cecilia Frigati
By Ananya S Guha
Solemn Signature of Death
A journalist reports:
we kill in this country
of hills, mountains and
plains, storm or winter
thunder or floods
In this country
mired with wounds of history,
barricaded by snow peaks,
walls, lands which know no
country, only people.
We have forfeited songs
of freedom, slung over
shoulders of enslaved race;
we talk peace, not war
but war is raging in footpaths
we wage it against relenting writers
to a photo finish.
In Kashmir even as snow-capped mountains
are hidden by a rising sun,
the blood spots tarnish a nation
now. As refugees come to our embattled
country, we say no to high-raised peaks
simmering with discontent.
The journalist was blasted seven times
till her brains outwitted her body.
A solemn signature of death.
***
These afternoons
poised between
day, night
summer, winter
equinoxes, shortest and
longest days
these afternoons wipe out
past, languish in summery tales
of this small town lunging ahead
to the crisis of city
Even as the traffic in its mad rush
halts to let an old lady pass by
with a half smile
***
Remembering You
I lay on your bosom
hills swivelled in many seas
trees swayed in dark nights
monsoons lashed the pines
windows glistened with rains
I held a mirror to your face
The hills breathed copiously
winter sang songs, lullabies
rendering us in sleep
only when death came home
we knew you were not ours
but that was decades ago
and now you sleep once again
syndrome of love
Bio:
Ananya S Guha is Regional Director, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Shillong.
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