Knowledge
One day
offended
I did not speak to you Dad
I knew, you, I pained
But what I did not know
then, was
that you’d revenge yourself
in absence,
never to be spoken to
again.
22 February 2009
9: 15 PM
If I could write this in fire
If I could write this in fire
so hot
For it to be etched on the very sinews of your heart
such that ’twould be frozen there for ever
That it could scorch your eyes
so no one else, evermore, would you read
have eyes for no other; the ones that read me last
That it could char your whole skin
so none would look at you
and I, only I, remained with your touch
fragrant with the odour of your sweat
gleaming in your infernal glow;
rekindling each day in my own sanctuary
those smouldering coals of lost memories
reading, re-reading,
such words-
inflammable.
Then, only then, would I say
Yes, indeed, I can write.
“If I could write this in fire”- is the name of an anthology of Caribbean literature.
Poem written sometime around late 2008- early 2009.
Poems published in A Posy of Poesy, an anthology issued by JKC College, Guntur as part of their Second National Poetry fest.
An article on the same:
In the hindu
Some other poems in the anthology:
Tikulicious
Nabina
