Arya Gopi's Poem

Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 1, Number 1. May 2018. ISSN: 2581-7094

Emigrants’ Veena  

                                      ---  Arya Gopi     

                       

Humanity narrated

tales of battles

in  the language of explosions.

Tales  of great countries wiped out,

tales of dried up blue rivers,                                                                                      

those of collapsed skies,

of malignant pedigree,

of burnt out Amazon rain forests,

tales of evictions,

tales of abject miseries,   

meted out to mothers and children.  

Old poems

that lost their soul

in replication  

and fresh suicide bombers

who misplaced their hearts  

have only  

blood stained stories  

to narrate.

While clocks halt in freezing chill,

torches smolder in grains of sand

sans the touch of wet waves.

Nights   soar   and roar

when sleep deserts closed eyes.

 Ancient  emigrants

for several decades  

don’t relinquish,  anywhere.                                                                 

When their home lands are at jeopardy

they pluck at  Veena.                                               

They are there in all places, all the time.

(translated from Malayalam by Pankajam Kottarath )