KANDASAM, Meena

Firewalkers

Maari had a one-point goal. Maari had a manic soul.

Maari made her men wage war, with her rapist’s blood,

To drench her hair. And then, and then,

As these stories go, Maari with her heart of stone,

Combed her hair with his left thighbone.

Here they are: the dream-chasers, the fire-stampers:

Souls in sweaty soles, the flaming bare feet

Of men and women (and also, those between) .

Here, the blood-splattered, whip-wrapped ones,

flaunting starry, self-flagellation scars.

Hollering here, the flashes of mortified flesh—

steel hooks piercing stretched skin;

skewers drilled through trembling tongues,

sometimes bridging cheeks, sometimes sealing lips.

Here, the hearts beat in answer to hysterical drumming.

Here, the bleeding is blessed.

And here, for Maari, the pain is prayer enough.


Princess-in-Exile

Scorned, she sought refuge in spirituality,

and was carried away by a new-age guru

with saffron clothes and caramel words.

Years later, her husband won her back

but by then, she was adept at walkouts,

she had perfected the vanishing act.


An Angel Meeting Me

and may be we will

almost fall in love...

I will look into his eyes,

and he into mine—

my one single eye,

(the unfortunate other

blinded by a disciplinizing slap)

and we will agree, adjust

that Love can be Blind.

And he, healthy boy

well-fed, white with his rosy cheeks,

will wonder about me,

pity my bony body, those thin ribs

and worry

and feel my twisted ears

and the scars on my hands,

(reminders of the flirtation

of my skin and a cruel cane)

and perhaps lift my skirt...

Before he learns the greater horrors,

I owe him the truth of me—

So, I will say to him:

"I went to school".

Aggression

Ours is a silence

that waits. Endlessly waits.

And then, unable to bear it

any further, it breaks into wails.

But not all suppressed reactions

end in our bemoaning the tragedy.

Sometimes,

the outward signals

of inward struggles takes colossal forms

And the revolution happens because our dreams explode.

Most of the time:

Aggression is the best kind of trouble-shooting.