Poem: bedaari

By Anil Pradhan

running out of excuses, fleeing at midnight
two things that should not happen in december
what ignominy at year-end must bind fractured hearts
what songs must unite the multitudes vying for liberation

all of this has happened before, memory is witness
no elegy need testify the horrors of marooned rivers
the scar marks do not go away despite afternoon naps
not everyone must leave, but all must remain
the math is cumbersome even by postbullshit standards
precepts of revolution, when it’s due for a hundred years

what must we feed eyes open wider than mouths
minds burning brightest over a sea of ravenous familiars
what could be done when ice air slithers through slits
and echoes the end of the farce that is human civilisation
no plea for mercy goes in vain for they are never heard
but the whooshing & loudspeakering can’t be our only legacy

go astray into the night for you have no reason to hide
no heirloom to safeguard against the dawn’s cruel guffaw
no frail papers to show at the gates of uncertain malice
no stolen blankets, no midnights of heaving silence
no precipitous dirge like uninvited rain in mid-winter
no more excuses left to write down on puny notepads

but iron and nail will falter at the face of resolve
but rabble-rousers will become antidotes for themselves
but baghs will become thoroughfares will become nations
you will finally arrive home, sublimate onto the endless
that none has seen, shall see, except for you, until then
we shall wait and remember
we will live another night

Photo: The Economic Times

Bio:
Anil Pradhan is a doctoral candidate at the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. His first book of poems titled Flitting Oddments will be published soon by Writers Workshop, Kolkata. He can be contacted at pradhan.anil7@gmail.com

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