Nothing is Missing
Arranged beauty, a vanishing self. Silent guns in the corner reveal an…
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From ULR
Issue 9 – Violence
MASSACRE ON THE ISLAND
Famished refugees on the island, refusing nature's bounty, became mere blood-stained effigies through self-devouring violence.
June 15, 2023
Once upon a time
Refugees from faraway land
arrived on the island
searching for bounties of their home land.
They were famished but refused to eat
animals, plants, shrubs and flowers.
Even in the moments of extreme hunger
they refused to eat each other.
For seven days- seven nights
they prayed under the odorous sun
in the sky and hurled stones at each other.
My blood vessels rushed to the surface of beach
in excitement –
Violence is like the innocent love of malicious God
flaming and feeding anxieties and animosities
in our erotic and spiritual veins.
One day, they sighted Robinson Crusoe-
young, handsome naked suicide bomber
panting, shaking with anonymous desires
of self-killing.
You will say He was expert in the science of elegies
but I know he was infatuated with making wooden coffins.
Slowly, evil power overpowered all the settlers –
they swallowed knives and daggers
filling oval appetites with artefacts of modern art.
One by one, all men, women and children
turned a pile of red- stained effigies –
half-burnt memory of massacres on the island
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONMASSACRE ON THE ISLAND and 2 other poems
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Ashwani Kumar
Ashwani Kumar is a poet, political scientist, and professor whose work has been widely published, anthologized, and translated into several languages. His poetry collections include My Grandfather’s Imaginary Typewriter, Banaras and Other Poems, and Map of Memories, and he is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction work Community Warriors. He has edited major poetry anthologies, including Rivers Going Home, Scent of Rain, and River of Songs, co-founded the Indian Novels Collective, and edits the Hummingbirds Poetry Series in partnership with Red River. He was also a chief editor of Global Civil Society at the London School of Economics. He has held visiting appointments at leading international institutions, including Heidelberg University, the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and the German Development Institute (DIE). He also writes for publications such as The Indian Express, The Hindu, Financial Express, Outlook India, Scroll, and The Print. He lives in Mukteshwar and Mumbai.