Poetry | For the Dark Times | Sutputra Radheye

Nepali Boy

The end

           I kill you

Today is your last day

(Nepali Boy)

-         Taken from  a wall in Delhi

Kill me

          hang me

                 in your universities

                     and mohallas

                      like garlands

of mustaches

Bury in your soil

             my face

                   my skin

                        my accent

                       my dress

              my voice

my identity

           and the map

                      you’ve drawn

                                     as India, ever since.

I am an Indian

I am an Indian

I’ve always been since the time when Radcliffe drew his line

I’ve swam across the Brahmaputra

I’ve danced in the rain of Sohra

I’ve woken to the sunrise of Arunachal

I’ve heard the singing of the Hornbill

I’ve played Yubi Lakpi when I was a kid

I’ve held the bamboo staves in Cheraw

I’ve prayed in the temple of Unakoti

And in the Rumtek monastery

I’ve fought the white colonizers

I’ve celebrated the tri-colour

My body is as Indian as yours.

 Priyotoma

(1)

There will be fire

and blood-sheet

when you'll walk

across the street

to meet me, Priyotoma.

(2)

When you come

leave your identity behind

throw your gods away

and be naked

like a soul in time stream

dear Priyotoma.

(3)

I shall wait, in nudity,

wearing no chord

that obstructs

my heart to embrace you

in the colour of your tongue

my honey- my Priyotoma.

(4)

Jaapi and roshogollas-

let them fight

like scavengers

and we shall love

like cuckoos         

in kamdeva's gate,

my lips singing

in your language

and yours

in mine,

a language

of waves

beloved Priyotoma.

Haiku

a bangal

      in the protest

beaten.

      and a miyah

                died in the queue

  of NRC

       alongside an axomiya

                          whose papers were eaten

   by the Brahmaputra.