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…
Poetry
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…
Dancing In Sympathy (Mullaitivu)
Six boys from Hindu College will enter the scene from Stage Left, an equal number of girls from Muslim Ladies Stage Right. They will shake their bodies, slide and writhe, and be…
Equal Treatment
Citizens of Killinochchi and Mullaitivu fled before our liberators arrived. They live for the moment in nearby jungle under a canopy punctured by shells. Some moved to a safe zone demarcated by…
Forgetting, Mullaitivu
The town is full of stray dogs, cows, ghosts, buildings pockmarked, unhinged, open to wind and rain. Soldiers patrol on foot. Trucks and tanks rumble through the center. Rebels took all the…