Sophocles and My Dadu

I have neither met Sophocles

nor my grandfather

both met the same fate

Sophocles died reciting a monologue

from Antigone

and my Dadu ~ burst his vein singing a

funeral song in a Brahman’s house

quite like an untouchable nightingale

when it loses its voice

and all music pauses

and Sophocles is dead

and I? I have never known him

but I know as little of dadu

as I know of what Sophocles

smelled like…

Maybe my Ammañ had known,

but has she forgotten?

I am far from her to ask

Closer to Sophocles’ place of birth than hers We

are a world apart

Separated by a Visa