Manipur Burning
for the battle of identity
for the hundreds dying
for the millions who do not care
burn,
they said
burn
because
you do not
matter.
let's turn
your rice fields
into our
battlefield
so we may
keep you divided.
so we may
feed our fanatics
your fractured
souls~
so we may
feed them
more power~
so we may
feed not the
poor and hungry
but the fat
and wealthy
with your wounds
and your blood.
burn,
they said~
because
you do not
matter
because
your naked bodies
are for us
to stain
with the lust
of male arrogance.
because
you do not
matter
because
you are mere
pawns
in our game
of chess.
Ram(bles)
Ram rose
with his bow
and arrow like
a warrior
out of a poet's
imagination~
out of Valmiki's
meandering
mind.
Valmiki of
many avatars.
sometimes
Ratnakar,
sometimes
Agni Sharma
the son, spouse,
thief, ascetic
and epic poet
who harvested
the narrative
of Ramayana from
the fertile fields
of his vivid
imagination
some five hundred
years before
Mother Mary
offered Jesus
to the world!
Valmiki created
Ram,
the mythic warrior~
and Ram
did not know
he would live
into eternity
in the temples
of myopia
in the divides
of dystopia
that unhinges
humanity.
Valmiki's Ram,
the mythic warrior
the icon for virtue
slaying Ravana
the vampire of villainy
who stole his Sita,
did not know
that one day~
one day
he'd be morphed
by Machiavellian
monsters
into the multi-headed
Ravana, each
head a hate-filled
fanatic unleashing
tyranny on the
"other".
just as Valmiki
did not know
his moral lore would
one day be
a tool for tormentors
a bible for barbarians.
Bina Sarkar Ellias is a poet, editor, designer and publisher of International Gallerie
