In Jaffna
Young people
Are still writing poetry
About Nandikadal
They are writing about
Being born a girl
And dowries
And arranged marriages
But also about
Nandikadal
They are reading poetry
In Tamil and the passion
Bursts out of their lips
And eyes
They are writing about
Water crises
And death
And I who have written about
The war realize
Am illiterate
In war
And though I cannot understand
The language
I can hear the fury
And feel the fire
They have not outgrown
The pain
Like
we shouldn’t outgrow
The memory
Before forgetting we need
To remember
This lagoon of lament
And the restless dead
that led us
There.
Young people
In Jaffna
Are still reciting poetry
About
Nandikadal
(Published in “Healing a Fractured World” by “Revolutionary Poets Brigade” San Francisco 2023)
