For Janaka Ekanayaka and Sisitha Priyankara

There were two minutes of heavy silence

among ten thousand tired people

Yesterday at Hyde Park.

The music and the speeches, the chanting and the slogans.

Stopped.

Only the sound of the crows

searching for scraps

In the city’s humid afternoon slashed the air, thick with a thousand complex

 emotions.

Sweat soaked into our black arm bands and then dripped onto

The soil into which you both will go: The land you struggled in

Will take you back to keep you safe

But safe is not a place you chose.

You wore no uniform, carried no gun

So you will not go down in history as heroes

In records kept by the powerful and the greedy.

There won’t be bright statues of you

Built in the town centres

No hypocrites will visit you next year

With cameras in tow

No crows will shit on you.

But you were armed, remember?

Courage, strength, fearlessness

So hard to disarm

So difficult to combat with water cannons and tear gas.

What I am trying to say is this:

You will shine brighter than

Any medal you might have worn.

And our memory of you will  never rust

 in the rain of forgetfulness

or in the years of silence.

(Janaka Ekanayaka and Sisitha Priyankara were two very vocal and powerfully active members of a student movement called the Inter University Students Federation currently on a campaign to restore dysfunctional universities in the country back to normalcy, to restore the freedom of students and academics, to depoliticize and de militarize higher education and to compel the government of sri lanka to spend more on state education. They were killed in a road accident two days ago. The IUSF says it has cause to believe their deaths were not accidental)

The Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA), Sri Lanka, has been on continuous trade union action since the 4th of July 2012. This is a video edit of our struggle in music and pictures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GZ1Hv4UMb8&feature=youtu.be


 For more information about FUTA's demands and Save Free Education campaign, visit http://futa-sl.org/ 

Maze

so there was this

dream i had last night

that i was lost in a labyrinth

and was trying to find you

amid a web of walls that

disappeared

and

reappeared

and because i couldn’t find

you

i kept palm-prints on

smooth white surfaces

which recorded them in blood

so i would not search

again and again

for you behind

the same old walls

but the palm prints disappeared

seconds after

they appeared

quickly, like the ending of dreams

so there was no ending

to my search for you

and no beginning

to my finding you.

(From Stitch Your Eyelids Shut)

Caricature!!

Drawing by Sumudu Athukorala

Not my words

What you will remember

long after

I have vanished

from the margins of your

life is

not my words

fragile as flowers

under a dancer’s feet

not my thoughts

that floated bubble-like

through the air

and sometimes met yours

But what you felt for me

for one moment

in time

that  intense

hot, razor-sharp

feeling 

as true

and as fleeting

as a new-born’s cry.

From nothing prepares you 2007, 2012

Diplomatic

At a diplomatic gathering

an ambassador’s wife

smiles sweetly

as I’m introduced as a poet

(a term I’ll always wear

like a size 14 dress

on my size 8 frame)

I smile back

embarrassed

hoping I can talk about the weather

the cricket world cup final

which we might win

or the war

which no one will

but her next question’s one of

mild surprise

“you write in English?”

and my smile turns

apologetic

for a reason that can’t find its voice

in poetry or prose

so I nod a diplomatic yes

and grab a drink from

a passing tray.

(April, 2007) - From Stitch Your Eyelids Shut

New Year 2008

In the early hours

of a new year

bursts of firecrackers

penetrated

cold December air

the smell of gunpowder

and renewed hope

rose high

and

sound couldn’t quite separate

fake fire from real

as a man lay dead

from a bullet to the chest

at a kovil in Colombo

Where he was

praying for peace.

(From Stitch your Eyelids Shut Colombo, Akna: 2010)

First book, second edition, out soon....

Meeting in South London

That morning I met you

at the underground station

was a freezing December day

but your smile was warm

and the three months

we had spent apart

melted like

the frost at my feet.

But by January it had snowed

and the new year had brought with it

new possibilities

for you

On the day I had to leave

we walked beside that

frozen lake

In your eyes I saw

that the end had already begun

Even as lengthening shadows

signal the end of a day

and falling leaves

sing of summers end

Still, there were tears in you.

so I took your hand

told you gently

“It will be a long time

before this place

and my heart

see the sun again….”

(From nothing prepares you, Colombo: Zeus, 2007; second edition forthcoming 2012, Colombo: Akna: publishers)

Search Engine

I wasn’t searching for you

Or anyone

I had long since

Unfound  love.

Until I found you

And  you became indispensable

Like Google.

and You tube

those that leave us wondering

How we had lived before.

But unlike the search engines

Or even Wiki

You couldn't stay long

So I guess I better get used

to the dictionary.

The yellow pages too

Might just  have to do.

(February 2012)

Kolkata - 2

Kolkota, March 2012

On the street

In Kolkata

The busescarslorriestruckscowstractorsminivans

Compete for space

Diagonally head on side by side

And the heat and dust

Choke you

Drivers curse at pedestrians and 

vehicles glare at each other

and you journey on

In spite of.

Until

A small fish falls from an open truck

Full of still-live fish

On to the hot tarred road

From a kind of frying pan

To a kind of fire

And for a moment the serious faces

Scrunched up in the struggle for space

Relax, laugh,

Point at the strange small piece of life

Still trying  to live

In spite of.

Kolkata -1

Swaying  ratsnakes mate

Two dancers creating life

On the dying grass

All is Fair

Kids play with real guns
Adults toy with children's lives
All is fair in war

(Haiku No 4:War, From nothing prepares you (2nd edition) 2012: Akna Publishers)

For anyone who loves Neruda and poetry read passionately

Why

(Translation of Liyanage Amarakeerthi's poem ඇයි මේ from his collection එකමත් එක පිටරටක with apologies to the author for the shortcomings)
 

I understand,
Oh Earth
that I offended the river
the day we voted for that villain
In fact I thought you would be
furious
when we voted for that
capitalist scoundrel
who broke the land into tiny bits
and sold it

I knew, almost instinctively,
that things would not be good the day
we voted for that crook who turned paddy fields
into real estate

I felt it, I felt it, believe me, mother
I felt it even in the wind, that the
trees were grieving
the day we voted for that
loser who destroyed
the forests for timber

Oh mother, I know
but what I cannot understand is
why you drowned our little hut
in the swirling waters of your rage
We only voted for those liars
because we were afraid
they would abduct our son
do unspeakable things
to our daughter.

Why, oh why did you crash into
the hill screaming and vengeful
and sweep away my children
while I was away toiling
so I could feed them?

And why did you spare me
is it so I could bear witness
and tear out my eyes?
Didn't you know that those two,
my little ones,
they were not yet even old enough
to vote?

The Ganges, India, March 2012. "To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. .. to never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.” (Arundhathy Roy)

From 'nothing prepares you' (2007)

Babe, I’m online and
Happiness is virtual
Log into my heart

Violence is an antigram of 'nice love'

Feelings are fickle
and leave
that is why
Felt
is an anagram
of left