28 July, 2006

We, the people

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blessed are we...!
We, who walk on two legs
Two legs to protect our ignominious groin
So that our hands can join
in worship of idolatry dysfunction
under nescient steeples...
And rise above our vacuous heads
in perspiring gatherings
to hail political pimps on scandalized pulpits
Blessed are we...!

We, who are actors
Playing heroes in ideated bedrooms
Curtaining our revolutionary impotency...
Our hands caressing breasts
of purloined pseudo-paragons
Ejaculating demented whispers
of consolation,
And dispersing them
like poisonous Rattlebox seeds
To swim and settle and germinate
in defiled uteruses

We, who shy away from the pen and sword
from hollow bellies of street children
From bits of half bodies
blown like confetti on drowsy mornings
...who sacrifice our lullabies
to songs of gun-fire
...and allow religious fascism
to gift unfinished fairy tales
to innocent children of the night.

We, who salivate at the smell
of free food dropped from helicopters
by knaves who worship
free trade capitalism.
We litter the footpaths of the nation
like crumpled paper carrying
trifling doodles
and search for our face in revolutionary poetry
on Crossword book shelves,
internet libraries,
and delectable read-meets

We should know...
that revolutionary poetry is born
in perspiration that flows inward
and fights to turn to blood
in the blind man's eye...



-©Vinod 28July2006

2 Comments:

Blogger Banno said...

Vinod, Your poem put into words what I've been thinking the last few days. It's all very well to be outraged against terrorism, injustice, etc. But are we as innocent as we would like to believe. Our society is riddled with religion, community, caste, class issues, the divide between people, not only the haves and have nots, but between the haves and the have mores is increasing at the speed of light. It's easy to be confused and cynical at a time like this, but yet again, I feel that even a confused secularism that looks for answers on Crossword book shelves, or readmeets, is better than giving up into resigned silence.

26/7/06 16:30  
Blogger Vinod Rajagopal said...

Batul, this is not an outrage against (popular) terrorism..
(my anger is reserved for better issues and worse people)
it is ridicule...
targeting people like me who have better potential than to sit and doodle love poems... even at the age of 32...

28/7/06 12:05  

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