Unshed Tears
Baby Elephants- dearly beloved elders were killed before their tender eyes Baby Elephants-arms, legs, teeth shriveled with the pain of the bullet Baby Elephants- loose wrinkled skin hangs off starving, haunted frames…
Poetry
Bearing Witness: Submit content on IDPs and Police brutality to win a Flip Ultra video camera
Through Bearing Witness, seeks to engender critical citizen journalism on two vital issues confronting polity and society in post-war Sri Lanka. The ground conditions in Menik Farm, worsened by recent flooding, are a…
Headlines
Bodies in the river and a riot in town Stones thrown, belts flying, youth going down Vans on the prowl and cops on the loose Gangsters, mobsters, drugs and booze Kids committing…
Confessions
Stop this struggle He pleads Of his comrades A revolutionary leader Broken in pain In State Custody They set me on the wrong path He blames, pointing to his friends A young…
Broken Pottu
An infant in Menik Camp. Many thousands of the IDP children have lost both their parents comes news from the Sri Lankan ‘welfare camps’. Bright red pottu Every morning Never missed. The…
Decree
The government wishes all Tamils good rest, sweet sleep and recovery at Manik Farm. We have cleared the brush and carpenters are busy making coffins. Parasites will be snuffed out, no ifs…
Beauty
What beauty in camps? I sit in my favourite chair listening to Beethoven’s last sonata, slient breezes in time. to the music. My world creates a sonata The other shatters all possibility…
Liberation
You claimed to liberate hostages, to conduct the largest rescue operation in history. In other countries people robbed of freedoms, rescued, are treated by doctors, then sent home to be greeted usually…
Belonging
The island belongs to centipede, rat, butterfly, lots of species each with their own habitats, and supervising all arable and fallow land the president king. Minorities may enjoy clean living in freshly…
The heartbeat of my country
The heartbeat of my country Crashes as wave against rock Bursts into spray and song, It roars down monsoon-swollen rivers, Drips one reluctant drop at a time From the leaves of a…
Satellite View
There will be lamentations and sadness, there are already, and recriminations. Why did we allow the unthinkable to fall down on those hapless families in tents and bunkers? Why did we agree…
Round-up
219 Tamils were rounded up in Gampaha town during dusk to dawn raids. They had no proper id cards and did not offer adequate reason to be living in the vicinity. Their…
Einstein was a Refugee
Refugees are sometimes active have agency they Leave, Flee, Sneak Flow over boundary lines unchecked like rivers they Escape, Hide Cross territories they Flood places like unnatural disasters are associated with Asylum…
For Mr K with love
Mr K died today Not unusual, all things perish But he was very young And had just got two tiny teeth And was a little fighter He tried hard to live In…
Three poems by Sivamohan Sumathy
[Editors note: These poems respond to Indran Amirthanayagam’s poems here, here and here. They are both part of the Writers Under Siege collection on .] 1 i am not a writer i…
