DISTANCES
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K. Satchidanandan (India)
I need to cross a sea
To go to my study,
A forest to my bedroom,
A mountain to my drawing room,
Three continents to my dining table.
To gather flowers I need to
Climb up clouds, and for fruits
I should cross a rainbow’s bridge.
When the dead put out my light
I light the moon to dispel darkness
When teardrops fall as snow
I sing to awaken the sun
to drive away the chill.
I open one window of this house
And summer comes in;
Another, there is rain
Winter enters through a third
And spring through another.
Only loneliness comes in at times
Through the door.
Silent. Helpless. Yet unafraid.
I go to sleep on a bedspread woven with
The alphabets of dead tongues
Stepping on the cries of dead birds
And the noise of crickets
I am not the protagonist
Of love stories; no elegies
Have been written for me.
Then who will tell me
Whether I am a living human being
Or the soul of a dead man? Or
Is it that the earth itself a nightmare
Seen by Franz Kafka?
Is this my house,
Or just a faith?
Whose breath am I taking,
Whose heart is it that
Beats within my body?
In which of my breaths am I?
In which stage of evolution?
Will I turn into a machine tomorrow?
Will there be a
Tomorrow?
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