By Gieve Patel It is startling to see how swiftlyA man may be slicedFrom chin to prick,How easily the bonesHe has felt wholeUnder his chestFor a sixty, seventy yearsMay be snapped,With what calmLiver, lung and heartBe examined, the bowelsNoted for defect, the brainFor haemorrhage,And all these insidesThat have for a Read more…
By Dr. Gieve Patel It takes much time to kill a tree, Not a simple jab of the knife Will do it. It has grownSlowly consuming the earth,Rising out of it, feedingUpon its crust, absorbingYears of sunlight, air, water,And out of its leperous hideSprouting leaves. So hack and chopBut this Read more…
By Dr.Gieve Patel There may be a very small comfortIn knowing yourself finallyUseless – when even grandchildrenHave grown beyond your love,And your would-be widowHas outhobbled you andWont be around to break withOne or two of her last thick tears,And not caring much forYour fellowmen, the doctorsWont get your body –To Read more…
By Dr. Gieve Patel The Saurashtra Express waits to startChained patiently to the platform,Good pet, while I clamber inTo take my reserved window seatAnd settle into the half-empty compartment’sCool; the odour of human manureVague and sharp drifts inFrom adjoining platforms.The station’s population of porters,Stall-keepers, toughs and vagabonds relieve themselvesTicketless, into Read more…
By Dr. Gieve Patel Text Book A case in point, the expert says;A woman thrust glowing faggotsWhere properlyHer son’s sparrow should nest.Puerile in-law practice, he says,But good as any otherTo set the story rolling; beginWith a burn in the sparrow’s nestTo extend over all therefrom emergingFan and flourish of the Read more…
By Gieve Patel Our English host was graciousWe were soon at ease;Or almost:The servantswere watching. © 1966, Gieve PatelFrom: PoemsPublisher: Nissim Ezekiel, Mumbai, 1966
By Nissim Ezekiel Some people are not having manners,this I am always observing,For example other day I findI am needing soapFor ordinary washing myself purposes.So I’m going to one small shopnearby in my lane and I’m askingfor well-known brand soap. That shopman he’s giving me soapbut I’m finding it defective Read more…
By Jerry Pinto All afternoon, I have tried to clean this space,It is not an easy task; it calls for a harsh dominion,A fierce exercise of will. Each paper is a palimpsestAnd all the oddments seem worthy of redemption. I begin quietly, ripping up evidence.Then a fury builds, my hands Read more…
By Arundhathi Subramaniam In the women’s compartmentof a Bombay localwe searchfor no personal epiphanies.Like metal licked by relentless acetylenewe are welded –dreams, disasters,germs, destinies,flesh and organza,odours and ovaries.A thousand-limbedmillion-tongued, multi-spousedKali on wheels. When I descendI could chooseto dice carrotsor dice a lover. I postpone the latter. © 2001, Arundhathi SubramaniamFrom: On Cleaning Read more…
By A.K.Ramanujam Composed as I am, like others, of elements on certain well-known lists,father’s seed and mother’s egg gathering earth, air, fire, mostly water, into a mulberry mass,moulding calcium, carbon, even gold, magnesium and such, into a chattering self tangledin love and work, scary dreams, capable of eyes that can Read more…