Swords and shields
Spears and horses
Domineering the fields
Human life split
Like bubbles before lids.
Bows mingling in blood
Shouting hard
Human heart, trampled
So much blood
So much blood
The conqueror bemoaned.
It happened in Kalinga*,
Now again in Kalinga.
But no emperor to bemoan
Only despot and tyrant
Lap up the hunted;
Cops and leaders feast.
Tribals by the woods
Toiling for a plot
Butchered by shots,
Dismembered palms
And breasts
Whirling like fumes
Over democracy pyres.
Who said Ashoka to quit?
Who says the Killer to sit?
* Old name of Odisha,a state in India
Note: Written after 2nd Jan.2006 Kalinga Nagar (Duburi) ,Odisha, massacre by police firing. As per Indian Human Rights Report 2007, in total 14 persons (adivasis) were killed. 5 dead bodies after post mortem had their palms chopped off and genital organs mutilated.
It is distress - the human agony and the gory tussle has consumed the poet. Kalinga and the comparison with the infamous war is misplaced though - perhaps your only objective is to depict the scale of violence. But then was democracy a fire or it was flinged to the fire of self-agrandisement and also met the same fate as that of human remains? Great, keep going
Bijoy Chandra Mohapatra 26-Mar-2012 04:49 AM
You are right, after Jairam Ramesh, that is, Govt of India, nodded Nabin Pattnaik,the 'Kala Pahar', has started the butchery... Please do not bring in Ashok into this dirty frame, Prafulla babu.
