Words Poem by Sreekala Sivasankaran

Words...
Just a few alphabets
The same old building blocks
Handful of raw materials
That make amazing structures
Carefully crafted

The echos in the mountains
The scratches on the leaves
A haiku, a winter droplet
Murals in the cave
Graffiti on the youth's wall

The heart that flowed into the paper
The wilderness of the mind
Smelling of wet ink
Full of meanings

The same words that make all the difference
Endless wonders
Magnificent marvels
Voices of the life in the dirt

Vani Saraswati, a calm river
Gargi's discourse, a deliberate provocation

Words are epic battles
Signature under the covenant
The magic of turning stones into feathers
An epitaph on the rainwet gravestone

Thorns of summer
The same things that caused immense hurt
Brought tremendous joy
Cried out unspeakable sorrow
Defined the vast emptiness
In the long days with no visitors

Snacks to dip in the liquor
And spit out like trash
The emotions that abstained from speaking
Order that was imposed on tireless work
Revenge smeared on the edge of the spear
Anger lashed out
At every passing moment
Meaninglessly but surely
Causing irreparable damage

Words
They're rejected love
Thrown into the dustbin
Ambiguous movement on the lips
Whispers of Naranathu Bhranthan*
Sound of sobbing in the darkness
Soul of the song
Full of memories

We try to pick them up
The broken pieces of the vessel
And put them in a corner
For fixing all over again
When there's nothing
They're still there
Speaking within us
Moving us through the heavy days and nights
Floating us in the flooding time


By Sreekala Sivasankaran

Chandrabhaga Journal.