Poems by Sreekala Sivasankaran
*********************************
1. 
A Poem
****************
I was about to post you a poem 
Ofcourse you're not there
Only an illusion 

Blue for Bukowski 
Green for Ginsberg 
Two bottles on the table 
Both are empty 

Thoughts have occupied our minds 
Like the big buildings 
on the small island 
Heavy on us
Heavy on everything 

A peck on the cheeks 
Great words of affection 
Cliché, cliché, cliché

Psychoanalysis of rivalry 
Has dawned on our world 
Walking out of the door now 
is the person most desired 

Now on the set of 
my evening life 
The cat plays with a dead rat

2. 
You became a whole country for me 
*********************************
The whirlwind that surrounded me 
Must've reached you 
I feared 
Unspeakable sorrow dawned on me 

The connecting bridge between you and me 
Did not really connect 
It just gave the appearance of a life
Desired for long 

I turn to your pictures now 
In the memory storage 
Mind too can be messed up with medicines 
Who should have been treated?
For what?

Parasites feed on the last drop of life
They don't cure you
They just make one more guinea pig
In the war of hungry religions 

I have the picture in my mind 
Etched so deeply 
Still so clear 
Despite the efforts 
To deface you 
Erase the smile in sleep 

A glimpse of your pale legs 
The Bodhi tree leaf
The hair like soft feathers 
Of the birds resting on your fingertips 

You became a whole country for me 
Your eyes emitting the sparks 
Needed for the traveller in darkness 
My soul is now resting in that body

If I die tonight 
Know that I have travelled to you

3. 
Yellow 
********************
Today, 
I am plucking this tongue out 
The last self-torture 
The lessons you gave me through dos and don'ts 
Made me a criminal again and again 
The fever which was not transmitted to you 
I kept as the last drop of hope 
A great summer of silence dried it up anyway 
Yellow nights, yellow days 
Scattered brains 
Like a vagabond's false dreams 
When you come with the new story of the mustard fields 
This colour will be lost
The last love

4. 
Beginning or the end?
***************************
For centuries 
We were there 

Origin of rivers 
Flowing like life 

Clad in paintings 
Naked like the earth 

And we are here today 
On this page

Like yesterday 
Looking for us

What happened to us?
Everytime the same worries 

Absences, rejections 
Long silences 

Yes, we are learned people 
Still learning 

In sufferings and struggles 
We are strengthened 

We become alive 
Smiling and touching 

The heart of our dreams 
Smiles of our hope 

Dreams leave us soon 
Like hope, 
They keep us waiting 

You pick up the book 
I am wondering who wrote it!
Certainly not me

Friends, are we here for a revolution?
I see you walking with my loved ones 

And we never walk together!
There's no resolution 

You're reciting 
The same poem over the years!

The story of counting names 
And we are not there 

You're standing on the raised platform 
Who are you?

A leader, a teacher 
A goddess, a schoolgirl 

An actor in the formation 
Waiting for transformation?

We're just an island 
Stranded in the ocean 
Still moving round and round 

And we come back to the  same spot 
which is the beginning or the end?

(From "Stranded")

*********************************