Poems: Cyber Kaali

1.

She’s a cyborg 
0 0000 0000 
1 0001 0001 
2 0011 0010 
3 0010 0011 
4 0110 0100 
5 0111 0101 
6 0101 0110 
7 0100 0111 
8 1100 1000 
9 1101 1001 
She writes each byte of her code 
She has no father 
no womb 
no country 
Her green laser eyes 
never sleep 
Her copper nanotube body 
bends for nothing 
For her solar beams that  
that eviscerate authority 
death means the destruction 
of the world. 
For her fitted forcefield 
gender only indicates a wish 
In the magnetic  
field where she moves 
caste religion nation don’t occur 
Sex for her 
is one more mouseclick game 
History is today right now this second 
Yesterday and today are addresses  
stored in her follicles 
and you 
software written into her 
hardrive 
you calling her 
Cyber Kaali in worship 
turning passwords into prayers is just 
a program that she made available 

2.

Who’s born when
the water breaks this time
is not
a wounded bird
a castoff deity
a torn word
She’s a virus
She draws electricity
from the potatoes you bring her
uses it to melt the metal of
broken idols mixes
in washing powder baking soda
and makes antennae of this
antimatter alchemy
She drinks the dark water of
the universe from
a silicone cup  
She’s coming for you too

Translated by Ashik Kumar from Leena Manimekalai’s original in Tamil