the most primitive emotion

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grandma always warned of this world,

as being a big inert tortoise..

i said i didnt believe her..

her ancient knowledge came from her 

tussles with the foxes and the crows 

and the infamous vada that she eventually lost

i didnt give a damn..outside in the valley,

niveda was running across ..

a butterfly on legs

chasing rainbows and fireflies in the morning sun

she gives me those flying kisses as she speeds along..

i pointed to the grandma

how the world moved on a hare's legs..

a tortoise could never have hare's legs..

she grumbled and went away to the moon..

she set up  a pastry shop i guess is running well ..

                        

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on a rainy night,

when the streets of this world 

closed all their windows on you,

you , who imbibed the most primitive emotion 

of this blood stained earth

let out a curse that has  haunted its womb 

from the moment 

our brother committed his first murder

with the jaw bone of a mammoth..

his brother lay dead in the mountain cave..

the jaw bone was the first crucifix..

revenge sustains human appetite..

killing gratifies the yearn of our song..

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on another sunny day,

from my porch , as i saw niveda watering the hibiscus in the garden,

 a soft spoken businessman stealthily 

swindled her  playground..

buying the stars that mourned

at a price  he as usual, fixed....

on that night , niveda's eyes turned

the shade of the jawbone's stain..

as she slowly imbibes that primitive emotion

the earth has always offered...

the world suddenly waddled like a huge tortoise..

as i looked up, i imagined grandma laughing..

the next new moon night,

they fixed the inauspicious dates 

for the apocalypse...

 

Reviews

[Sanjeeta Sharma Pokhar..]

Fantastically Fantasized :)

Good write Vivek !

:)

[Dayran]

I take it that your soft philosophizing of the issues persuades you to do the right thing yourself; that it has not intimidated you. Its a smooth flowing poem from an impulse that may be prepared to cultivate a reform on issues. A curious sense of grandmotherly kndness.

[.]

. ah, i see ... i've watched them from close ... they're not inert ... and they're not selfish ... they're sweet and slow ... :) ... neverthless ... i meant that ... i'd like to think that world is not inert or selfish ... and that might be my baseless idealism talking ... but that's how it is ... i think that there's a lot of potential ... in a world like this one ... to make a difference ... it's a world where the radical would stand out without even trying ... in that sense ...

[vivekanand]

actually my choice of hare and tortoise might be misleading.. i used tortoise to conjure an inert image and selfishness rather than the speed..

[.]

. brilliantly written ... with some exquisite images ... however i somehow feel less resigned to the idea of accepting that the world is slow ... perhaps it's deep rooted idealism which might be baseless ...

[vivekanand]

vada is a south indian dish ..the allusion to the foxes and crows come from a fable and local legend