The Rights of Tea
The tea’s words explode, hot water turns into red and gold. Pekoe picked on Nuwareliya slopes. burnt in kilns, sorted then for the nose of a dapper merchant in a silk suit…
Author: Indran Amirthanayagam
Man Versus Elephant
I hear compensation due for an attack by a wild elephant will increase to rupees 500,000 from the current 200 K in Sri Lanka. Henceforth, if you are unlucky enough to…
Welcome Back, Uncle
After Civil War and Tsunami, floods again, the worst in 25 years, which recalls more or less the war’s length, and the Tsunami won’t return for another hundred. Where will we molder…
In Absentia
My blast through screens of Walmart.Com has left no visible trace, name drained from the database, the retailer cutting losses, unwilling to keep stock, especially in the department of war poetry. about…
Miracle on the Green
I have forgotten last week, and last year took place inside a long glass twinkling with snow dust. Where are we now, The year racing perenially and not one stab in the…
Five Years Later
Photo by Ron Haviv The pearly island, flip in the sea before munching hot prawns near breakers on the beach; be careful with a camera, no point and shoot in sensitive…
The Virtual Library
I have no image of the vault or shelves, or tables with lamps scholars use to consult books. I am seeing the library from a great distance, pleased that the building stands…
Howling
What shall I do, living in Peru, with this report of systemic failure in U.N. monitoring in Sri Lanka, how bureaucrats drove away from the disaster to come, buried hard- earned stats…
Happiness Blues, Sri Lanka
I don’t know what to say, my friend, I have some blues that don’t seem right, too light and fancy free, happiness and all that putty you poke and pat, grinning silly,…
The Writer Fighter
Have you become a lance corporal, wing commander, lieutenant, private, sergeant, major general? Or are you a writer transporting yourself into trenches to wield a saber against a vague menace, bespectacled, sitting…
From the Hold
I don’t merit praise, who am I to suggest inventing the west moon for the Lankan imagination, or that one day a Tamil child will rise from fires to claim the rights…
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
This request to write in 25 words or less the hint of a larger narrative teases my Muse to dance on a pin, prick the skin and bleed monsters, unnecessary to acknowledge,…
Extra Time
The latest news from the family-run, once independent island, is the appointment of a presidential committee to decide upon which recommendations to adopt regarding the erstwhile ethnic question, which has been subsumed…
Defending the Country
They cry foul in that cauldron of a news room, saying these human rights defenders are traitors, publishing their names and photographs, inciting fears of death squads preparing to drive white vans…