Personal Poem by Ravikumar C.P.

Kannada Original: B.R. Laxmana Rao
Translation: C.P. Ravikumar

The night they set that hut on fire
the sparrows flew out helter and skelter
and escaped through the window holes.
Not these people, they had no wings.

The rats and rodents quickly entered their holes
and dug their way out to safety.
Not these people, they had no trap doors.
Or loop holes.

They wailed like it would melt the stones.
They called their fellow men,
neighbors, and onlookers.
But there were no hearts to be found.

They called the lord almighty himself,
but no, he didn't come neither.

The whole thing was over, reduced to ashes
in a matter of minutes, and life goes on.
This is no ordinary news to me
but a nightmare, a ghastly haunting vision.

You see my sister eloped and married
a man of another religion.