WHERE AM I FROM?
Where am I from?
From what distant land
Seed thrown to the wind
Sown by whom
Why
On this land where we toil so?
Will I return to these places I do not know
To give account? To what? To whom?
A mission? The meaning of my life?
I have doubts, fears sometimes
And certainties so uncertain
Face beaten time and time again
Where am I from?
Where will I return?
When? And the answers
To all my questions?
NEENE
Mama’s gone
Just as she came
On her tiptoes
Mama’s gone
Hit by the mad horse
Galloping along
On shores
No one ever returns from
Mama’s gone
To the land of great mystery
Where there are no questions
Mama’s gone
Put alone at the bottom of a pit
Mama’s gone
Never will she gently gaze
Upon me again
Mama’s gone
Who will sponge my forehead
Wipe away the bitter sweat of life
The clash of gladiators
The whirlwinds of the world
The convulsions of the earth
The tragedies of the planet
Mama didn’t know any of this
Mama left
Just as she came
To birth me
And mother me
Mama’s gone
Her mission done
Mama’s gone
Never to return
Put in a hole
Then abandoned
Mama never knew
Was it so bad
If she didn’t know about
The gladiatorial clash
The whirlwinds of this world
The crashing of the earth
The tragedies of the planet
The world is like that
Could she know everything
But Mama knew she’d just came
To bring me into the world
And give me a mother’s love
NEENE
WHAT HYENAS THESE JACKALS ARE
Jackals or hyenas!
These strange beasts lived so so far away
Indifferent, echoes came back to us
Weak they were No worries because
These beasts were far away, and sometimes devoured each other
First there came one
Then one by one
This is how they do things
Then came two, then two by two
Which began to howl
All together and softly
These beasts wanted to be worse than anything
“Fathers mothers don’t count
Today is meaningless
Everything is drowned in moving dunes
All lost in the forest of confusion”
Said these hyenas when they entered.
Forgetful we tolerated them
“You’ll cover your heads with a kippah
hang the cross around your neck
rub in henna to redden your beards
Grill your faces
Delivered from temptation now”.
Then came three by three, twenty by twenty
That spread like quackgrass
When all these beasts entered
No one could go out anymore
And the hymn all these beasts intoned rang out mournfully
“We’ll deal with the manure We have expert hands
The seeds will sprout, the green hills will bloom
Today doesn’t count Tomorrow it’ll all be more beautiful”.
Their words were high and mighty, sometimes very flowery
All we heard was the grim song of those who do not love life
All these beasts howled even louder
From all sides
And all at the same time
Their maws revealed fangs
They machine-gunned in the dark night
Unservile and sometimes even suspect shadows
“What’s life worth? Nothing. Offer oneself to death
If tomorrow green hills bloom!”
The dark stain of the pack advances interminably
Softly then noiselessly
The brown stain of the pack with their fangs
Spreads without mercy…
A huge cloud of fear floats
Right above heads that bend and bend
Will the rain of shame fall much longer?
What hyenas these jackals are!!
Also, read A Dream Talk and Other Poems by Usham Rojio, translated from the Manipuri by the poet, and published in the Antonym:
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