trout [ 6 ]
Ahila Sambamoorthy: [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
  Enduring Land
 

An ephemeral throbbing sensation
in the heartland of my heritage
From unbelonging
               I move to belonging 

The temple's gopurams glitter
Shiva Vishnu Muruga Ganesha
displayed in harlequin silken robes
are gesturing me to kneel
A bare-chested priest intones mantras
kindling the golden Agni
               an angelus to his rites 

In my stately hotel
I lick the platter clean of ambrosia
while on the street below
a man defecates in the undergrowth 

The tight gnarled arterial streets
are clotted with gaudy bazaars
boast their stench of bilious manure
               a waxen woman seeks the trishaw's shade
               her bulk emaciating her
               Alzheimer-struck slave 

Toiling rustic stagger
with their bane of blighted harvests
Consumptive mothers crawl out of
cramped mud-huts
their withered breasts unbeckoning
to the parched throats of dehydrated infants
The jaundiced naked child
festering with postules
frolics under the cruel sun
Distempered boars and rabid dogs
ungainly with distended abdomens
partake in the revelry 

Leprous Syphilitic
cads vagabonds roughnecks delinquents
all bear the angst of destitution
               their hearts carved out of gall 
               These then are the deranged faces
of the land's inglorious philistines 

These then are the heart-wrenching sight
through which my blood flows 


(Based upon impressions of New Delhi. Composed: September 1993)


© 1999


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