By Ra Sh

Banjaaran

The emerald eyed banjaaran
Offers green bangles to me.

Where do you get the glass from?
I ask her, now crystal eyed.

From my tears, says she.
I watch the clear gluey stream.

Where do you get the green from?
I ask her, now chlorophyll eyed.

From my milk, says she.
She opens her blouse
And shows two fonts
Of topaz and sapphire milk.

Can I live with you? I ask
As she packs her bangles.

I will come to you, she says
When your heart spouts a rainbow.

She walks away
My heart erupts
Into ash and coal tar.

Me, my wife and the other
(Confessions of a rotten husband)

Wife cooks, feeds, cooks, feeds
Makes my bed, serves me meals in bed
I crave the other.

Wife bathes me, cleans my bum
Washes my clothes, dries and folds them
I crave the other.

Wife shops, buys fish, buys eggs
Sends and collects courier packs
I crave the other.

Wife checks my fever,
Panics at every cough, every sneeze
I crave the other.

Wife waits outside ICU
Puts up with my tantrums
Buys all my medicines
I crave the other.
Wife sweeps, mops,
Leaves the floors squeaky clean
Deodorizes the toilet
Boils water for my daily shave
Guards me from dawn to dusk
Prays to the Gods, offers them money
Dissolves any discomfort
Any wrinkle, any sprain
But, I crave the other.

I crave the other in the wife
I crave the wife in the other
I crave the other in the other
I crave the wife in the wife
I crave the wife and the other
In the other and the wife
I crave the other and the wife
In the wife and the other

A series in 4 episodes

episode 1:

a regiment of old people
more bones than flesh
are thrown into an army truck
to be unloaded in the woods
near some godforsaken border,
but, a fierce debate breaks out
whether they should be blinded or not
orders are awaited from the capital city.

episode 2

a burst of pellets perforate
a sieve on a snow girl’s face
she is blindly seeking the way to her house
when a newsman captures her image.
next day, she appears on media
as a “stone pelter who strayed into
rolls of concertina wire.”
the stones in her bag
are being counted.

episode 3

the level of the river is raised to 142
42 more villages get submerged
42000 tribals and as many trees drown.
a tourist guide invites tourists to the dam
to watch the spectacle of the rising water.
“visit the world’s tallest statue
called freedom statue nearby”,
cry out the tourism touts and pamphlets.

episode 4

a man-made object hurls into space
aiming to tickle the moon’s shiny skin
entire nation waits with bated breath
as the lander begins its descent
the country loses contact with
the lander, the land and the landless.

Ra Sh (Ravi Shanker N) has published English-language poems in many national and international, online and print magazines. His poems have been translated into German and French. He has published two collections of poetry, Architecture of Flesh (two editions) (Poetrywala, Mumbai), and The Bullet Train and other Loaded Poems (Hawakal Prokashan, Kolkota). His translations into English include a biography titled Mother Forest (Women Unlimited) profiling C.K. Janu, tribal leader, two collections of poems Waking is Another Dream: Sri Lankan Tamil poems (Navayana) and ‘How to Translate an Earthworm’ an anthology of 101 Malayalam poems translated to English (Dhauli Books), among others.