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
