Poem
Dileep Jhaveri
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Trees of utter lies,leaves of flames,
flowers of ash.
Lead me, someone, out of this forest.
I have wandered forever,
carrying a couple of damp words,
stumbling across steam-blinded tracks,
feet slashed by
rusted vessels, broken tiles, half-cooked meals,
tattered clothes, roofless screams, broken bones,
stooped bodies that turn to stone when you touch them.
I roam every day
like a ghost from some stammering past
or some endlessly hungry, never appeased
unknown evil deity
blind to himself,
a lost sun
or death.
From these woods
of ulcerous, oozing, burning, cracked mirrors
someone
lead me, out of this forest.
© Translation: 2002, Ranjit Hoskote
From: Bruised Memories
Publisher: Seagull, Kolkata, 2002
From: Bruised Memories
Publisher: Seagull, Kolkata, 2002
This poem is from ‘Khandit Kand’, a cycle of poems written after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.
AVATAR
© 1993, Dileep Jhaveri
From: Parab
Publisher: Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Ahmedabad
From: Parab
Publisher: Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Ahmedabad
Poems
Poems of Dileep Jhaveri
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Trees of utter lies,leaves of flames,
flowers of ash.
Lead me, someone, out of this forest.
I have wandered forever,
carrying a couple of damp words,
stumbling across steam-blinded tracks,
feet slashed by
rusted vessels, broken tiles, half-cooked meals,
tattered clothes, roofless screams, broken bones,
stooped bodies that turn to stone when you touch them.
I roam every day
like a ghost from some stammering past
or some endlessly hungry, never appeased
unknown evil deity
blind to himself,
a lost sun
or death.
From these woods
of ulcerous, oozing, burning, cracked mirrors
someone
lead me, out of this forest.
© 2002, Ranjit Hoskote
From: Bruised Memories
Publisher: 2002, Seagull, Kolkata
From: Bruised Memories
Publisher: 2002, Seagull, Kolkata
This poem is from ‘Khandit Kand’, a cycle of poems written after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.
Avatar
Trees of utter lies,leaves of flames,
flowers of ash.
Lead me, someone, out of this forest.
I have wandered forever,
carrying a couple of damp words,
stumbling across steam-blinded tracks,
feet slashed by
rusted vessels, broken tiles, half-cooked meals,
tattered clothes, roofless screams, broken bones,
stooped bodies that turn to stone when you touch them.
I roam every day
like a ghost from some stammering past
or some endlessly hungry, never appeased
unknown evil deity
blind to himself,
a lost sun
or death.
From these woods
of ulcerous, oozing, burning, cracked mirrors
someone
lead me, out of this forest.
© 2002, Ranjit Hoskote
From: Bruised Memories
Publisher: 2002, Seagull, Kolkata
From: Bruised Memories
Publisher: 2002, Seagull, Kolkata
This poem is from ‘Khandit Kand’, a cycle of poems written after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.
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