The Right Queue
Poems are waiting in a queue. But that is alright. They are poems only, not people lining up for kerosene, or fish, or paper. or petrol. I write them in a…
Author: Indran Amirthanayagam
What’s Left
We are tired, and we have cooking gas now, and fuel shipments have docked. So we will get back to the business of living and not worry anymore about the…
Free Joseph
Free Joseph Stalin. Let Father Jeewantha Peiris walk out of hiding in peace to attend to his parishioners. Let Mahanama Thero stop on the side of the road to counsel passers…
To Survive, Even Thrive
My country will survive corruption in parliament, arbitrary arrests ordered by the executive, bodies washing up at Galle Face, at the Beira Lake. My country will survive farmers shooting elephants…
Governor, listen
Photograph by Marisa de Silva Father Jeewantha Peiris, Mahanama Thero, Joseph Stalin, from diverse denominations and political persuasions, are Aragalaya heroes, who called the bluff of the emperor, leading to his…
The State Versus The People
The State, knocked down in the early rounds of Aragalaya, is back, sparring and dodging and delivering upper cuts again as if nothing has happened, as if the struggle is a…
Aragalaya: For Everybody
This is not only about sitting on the verandah with a scotch and a pig in a blanket. This is not only about picking up the beat and dancing the…
Aragalaya: A State of Mind
Wijewardene We are taught to be modest, circumspect, wrapped under covers, demurring, scuttling away like mice. We are educated to be peons, servile class members, ambitions tempered, molded to fit the…
Dying in the Fuel Lines
Photo courtesy of Daily FT When Gota ran away we raised arms and shouted gratitude to God, to fate, to a possible return from the nightmare but his fleeing did not…
Aragalaya March
We walked for twenty kilometers and more from outlying suburbs, from neighborhoods in the city, on the way to the country’s maidan, to . We jumped into vans with full…
The Aragalaya Replies
Why keep knocking at the front door of that house? Let go. Go away. Go to sleep and wake up refreshed. Build your own door. Build your own house. Nobody…
Prayer for The Struggle
We are closing our eyes and we are opening them. We are walking about the house looking at photographs. We are calling old friends on the phone. Back at home 225 members…
The Candid Candidate
Yes, fantastic is right, wondrous. amazing the news. But there is some trepidation as well in my mind and heart. Parliament may blow this chance. I pray they do not. If…
Listen to the Pulse
The people will not be robbed of their fundamental right to choose their leaders, and to discard them when they fail to lead,when they steal, when they ruin their charge. Extra- …
Finish the Job
The party did not last very long. Inflation remains beyond fifty percent, kerosene has not been unloaded from the port, and the national coffers are fifty billion dollars in debt, but the…