WHO AM I
Who am I anyway; a hare-brained mongrel?
A tree lightning struck on sedate shores?
Deadwood burnt lying in the grave of forgetting?
A firefly turned into scorching torch?
Or thunder challenged screaming at the lightning?
Today I am in the sky where a red sword
From a swarthy ocean furiously flashed
Between blasting billows of earth’s passion
Am I not my friend fearing this sword-thrust
Into this far sky coalescing into
My black blood’s steady vermillion whisper
Where is the truth that deliquesces not
At my patient inquest into this burn
Its never healing itch and identity
The rain soaked bird and its song is sunk
The river is in flood, my thirst is but quenched
I strain to break through my birth-bonding skeins
By S.Jagathsimhan Nair
Date: Written about 20 years back
For Gautami Phookan's contest
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