POEMS OF VAIRAMUTHU
1. DIALOGUE WITH ANTS
Ants, Oh, Tiny ants
Procession of soul’s droplets
Ten Million years ago
Your species came into existence on this earth
You are the tiniest wonder of the world
Would you lend me your ears
As I wish to speak to you
“To chit chat and waste our time
We are not humans
Whatever you wish to speak
crawl and come along with me” *****
You are Lilliput world
of one centimeter
Have you ever felt belittled
That you are a feeble creature
“Oh stupid humans
pharaoh ant are tiniest
in our species
We can lift fifty times
More of our own body weight
but are you capable”?
*****
What’s your hobby??
“Life itself is a hobby
Searching is our sport
And crawling is our rest
In our short span of life
Destined to end within six or ten weeks
Where is the time to rest
And where is the time to sleep”? *****
Then why to struggle
For this meager life?
Like humans, we do not have
one belly but two
One is to digest and the other to save
The saving part is meant for
our fellow ants to feed on
And this struggle is for the sake of these two
*****
Can you define
The pride of your species
“Our colony civilization is older than
The Indus Valley Civilization
A harem for the fertile queen
A quarters for sterile servant ants
A graceful graveyard
To bury the dead ones
A large storage space
To save the food at rainy times
This is the beauty of our kingdom
You are the lengthy proofs
Of our petite life, indeed”
*****
Have you ever wondered at yourself
And on what occasion?
“Frailty is our life
Even if struck with delicate peacock feathers
But we are mighty enough to
Kill an elephant”
*****
What do you hate and what do you love?
“Hate - the sprinkled seas, upon us
When the floors are cleaned
Love - the benevolent women
Who decorate the earth with rice flour”
*****
What will you do
If the grains you saved sprout?
“As we carry the grains
The hysterectomy is done
When the tip is broken
They sprout not, oh human”
*****
Your unforgettable incident?
“Death of our 4000 ancestors
crushed at the time of your non-violent war”
*****Why do you kiss the ants
crawling towards you?
“Its an attempt to sniff and identify
Whether they are from our clan
If they are one of us, we give them way
If not we block and fight”
*****
Oh, Little idols
Which is your great pride?
“If the Army Ants of Amazon
Find a dead elephant on the way
They move ahead only after feeding on it, completely
The bellies of those ants
Are the burial grounds of elephants”
*****
Is Non-violence
Your way of life?
“No, we do have way-laid robbery
And war among us
To announce the danger
We make noise and gestures”
*****
Sounds of Ants…
Oh we never heard of…
“If humans are deaf
Its not the fault of ants”
*****
Thank you dear ants, Thank you
“We ought to thank you”
*****
But why do you have to thank me?
“The world so long was praising
And pennwd Puranas about
Unseen Kamadenu, the Mythological cow
And Adishesha, the Mythological snake
Which might not have even existed
Nevertheless, fondly you thought of us,
At least today – for that sake”!
***** ***** *****
2.LEAF
Today or tomorrow…
Now or later
I may fall
I am oscillating
in the last string
If the brushing wind
Turns emotional
If a kissing droplet of rain
Falls upon my nose
If a bird on my branch
Perches and flutters its wing
I may fall
*****
Bid adieu, dear branch
How many charge sheets
Are framed upon me till now
I nod my head
For the discordant notes
Of the wind
Show my welcoming green signal
To the birds that perch and excrete
I always caress
The leaves near me, all day long
But now on my death bed
My fellow leaves have pardoned me
If so..
Is life incomplete?
and..Is only the death complete?
*****
Fulfilled life is my life
The earth turned cold
In the sprinkle
Of my bathing
The rays of the sun
Reached the earth
Only after touching me
In my breath of the dawn
The foul air turned chaste
I took from this tree
Very little as my share
But gave back abundantly
*****
In my life
There of course, are two
Unforgettable incidents
*****
A terrible night
of an unknown cyclone that turned a slayer
of Age old trees and the tender plants, alike
A romantic morn
When I covered my face with my fellow-leaf
On seeing the mating of bees upon flowers
In shyness
*****
On a fine day
A bird that perched in my branch
Kindled me
“Oh poor leaf!
Have you ever wept in sorrow
Of not being born as a flower or fruit?”
*****
I rustled aloud
With the help of wind
Kindled me
“Thank God, I am not a flower
Because the bees will not
play with my chastity
My goodness, I am not a fruit
And am saved from parrots
Who woud tear and savour me
Being what you are is heaven
And yearning is hell”
*****
There comes
My death in the shape of wind
Here…here
My corpse fall
Upon the earth
Give me way..give me way
Oh colourful butterflies
Keep aside….keep aside
Oh ephemeral creatures
Thank you Death
Thank you
You have come to bestow a boon
Which my life failed to offer
Now, I am going to kiss my Mother Earth
For the first time in my life
From whom I stayed away all my life
*****
I am coming to you dear Mother
I am coming
Embrace me, Embrace me
Aha … what a pleasure
This is Adhvaitha
*****
Don’t be morose
This is not the end
But a new beginning
Life is a cycle
Death is its ornament
The cycle moves on
I am certain to be back
To your branch
In another form
Through your roots
Could you, for once,
Make all your leaves
clap for me
*****
3. HALF OF BODHI
If earth spins backwards
What do you wish to see?
-Time enquired me
“Siddhartha’s renunciation”
was my answer
Earth travelled in lightning speed
And stopped at the place of my wish
*****
Palace of Kapilavasthu
In a solid state of absolute stillness
The ashes of the morn
Permeated the night
Unable to comprehend
That was an unforgettable night
The orphaned Moon was gloomy
Moon is brightness, even in gloom
The lights of the city
Closed their eyes and slipped into slumber
Hoping, bees could not find their way
Blossoms of orchards partially covered themselves
With leaves and slept
Drinking excessively from the plant-gobblets
the inebriate wind tumbled, perhaps broke its leg
and was tranquil
Leaving the stars to guard
The Moon slept in the middle of the sky
*****
Siddhartha was in the last moments
Of his palatial life
Standing at the threshold of his new birth
He gazed at his extravagant self with detachment
His wife was asleep
As if sacrifice itself was sleeping
Siddhartha bent
A droplet of kiss fell on her lotus face
His caressing fingers refused to depart
The curly tress of his son
Involuntarily
his feet touched the luxury of sandals
But then, kicked off
“Wait Siddhartha” –
The staircase of the castle admonished
“Welcome, Buddha” – the rustling leaves
Of a distant Bodhi tree greeted heartily!
*****
Yasodhara shivered in her dream
Where a bird in flight suddenly turned into a star
And woke up
The regal emptiness of the bed
Communicated everything
All her senses broke
She ululated through her sobs
“Oh Mightiest of all kings!
You renounced the pleasures of life
Desirous of obtaining wisdom
You left a kingdom in the size of your palm
But will attain the Universe
You renounced the crown
But will adorn the Halo
If obtaining the bestowed best
Than the meager renouncement
Then, Renouncing is not great
Dear Son of Sudhodhana
Your life moves towards peace
And mine towards nothingness
A refugee in my own country
A widow adorned with flowers
A saint with a heir
You are not the one who renounced
It is Yasodhara and none other than Yasodhara”
Unable to tolerate the heat of her tears
The earth began to spin forward
And stopped at the ‘Present’
4.WORD POWER
“Kill”, “Loot”
Words that have dominated history
“Embrace”, “Kiss”
Words that cots have listened the most
“Lullaby”, “Oh..Saturn”
Words that have hovered the most over cradles
“When is your wedding”
Words of arrows aimed at a Call girl, the most
“Memorize”, “You will not succeed”
Words that echoed the most in classrooms
“Have a last look”
Words that are mourned, the most, over graveyards
“River of Milk and Honey”
Words that have lured a Common Man, the most
“Forget not to drop a letter”
Words that Railway stations reverberated the most
“Sir is bathing”
Words that telephones have murmured the most
“Dad is angry”
Words that have most frightened the kids
“Please” “Pardon”
Words that Europe is most familiar with
“You should have come yesterday?”
Words that the borrowers have regretted the most
‘All in the hands of God”
Words that filled sorrows to the hospitals, the most
“Enough is enough”
Words have lost their colours
In the beaten track
Now let us clear the cobweb
From each word
Let us change
the order of the words
Let us oxygenate
Each word
Change of words
Can change the life
First let us save
The words from life
Then, from the semantics
Considering the length and breadth of life,
Let us decrease or increase Our vocabulary
“He is dead” –
Instead, let us make it as
“He won the life”
“Failure” –
Let us through and say
“Success that stands away”
“Enemy” –
But why use this?
Let us call him “a distant friend”
If there is fight between a couple
Let us call it as “Wild Love”
If we see a leafless tree in autumn
Let us celebrate it as
“Beginning of next spring”
If an ailing body is bedridden
Let us say
“The tired body is resting”
If a drop of ink stains a white shirt
Let us wonder
“Ah, what a bright white around the stain”
When it is a new-moon night
Let us praise it as
“Star filled Delight”
Let the negative words be
Gone forever
Let positivity
Be the soul of life
Let us craft the old words
And replant them
In a new land
When the redundant words
are dead and gone
“Salt-less” life can turn
“Sugary” again!
5. EPITAPH ON A BIRD
On seeing the guns
Frightened, you might have raised your wings
As you have no hands to raise
Death would have folded
The last wing that was raised
What would you have thought
In your final flutters?
Perhaps, you would have wondered
the path to death is too long
Or might have wept, thinking
What kind of culture is it to cook the guest?
Or might have grinned foe becoming
A prey when you were in search of food grain
Or would have sighed for taking leave from your flocks
for a journey to visit the country of non-violence
Or might have been tearful
for not being able to cross a little pond
Though your mighty wings could cross an ocean
Or would have quivered to convey
At least send a feather of my wing
to my precious mate
Or might have perturbed
Between the Earth and the human stomach
Which of the two will be your grave?
Or might have vaguely remembered the Hindu faith
That South is the Direction of Death God Yama
Or might have languished on the thought of
Your unfulfilled desire to learn the ‘Language of Birds’
Or might have ached for dying without knowing
the technology of building a weaver bird’s nest
Or might have simply Rested In Peace
Hoping that the neighbouring birds
Would shed tears of the death of any bird
But my sincere prayer is only one -
“Let this poor little dear bird
Know not that King Sibi lived here on this land”
