Poetry after Libricide and Genocide

by Cheran Rudramoorthy, ‘Indialogs,’ Barcelona, Spain, January 2016

http://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/v3-rudhramoorthy/pdf_26

Cheran Poetry after Libricide & Genocide

Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings – Heinrich Heine

Healing the Forest

To heal a still
smoldering land,
we went;
no bird in sight.

An empty sky
above the sparrow-flying
earth.

An ash-covered landless earth
to the edge of that wide expanse;
here, no one knows
how to gather bones.

Yet,

Our libation of milk
the relentless
welling of tears now
mocked with glee
with dance and song
by an estranged foe;
what then
is the way ahead?

To cool the burning heart
there is nothing today.

No witness
for the drop of blood
still not dry.

To claim closure
to dissolve ashes in the sea
to scatter in the air
to close one’s eyes,
there is no air
there is no sea
there is no way
to heal the forest.

(2009)

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