Uni-Verse
Canto ~1~ Once I loved joining points Looking at dulcet stars I would imagine them sprouting limbs And a circle of stars would be merrily holding hands Giggling and singing in rapt joy Canto ~2~ I never quite understood geography It was a vestigial organ That interfered with the harmonious functioning Of earth’s body Better wrenched out and done away with. What was the logic of drawing boundaries Carving out one’s own meat Or one’s mother’s? Marking rivers, countries, mountains Tagging them blue, green, brown Saying : this belongs to us And that to you But your country is not your own Canto ~ 3~ Tell me How far can I string The pebble of my eye Out of myself For I am a schizophrenic cipher A whole universe breathes in me Yes, the same that Yashodha saw in The grit in Krishna’s baby mouth Though I am severly myopic And stone deaf For beyond a certain strain and colour I cannot see and Cries of men, children, women, cats, dogs Bombed in their own homes I can only hear faint whimpers As shrapnel flies and pierces skulls And then some more lines are drawn Canto ~ 4~ Walls define me now Blood recoils in its own toxicity Veins and arteries of rivers are tied up Water is a commodity A stroke strikes the consciousness A psychotic cry rules the heart The world is a blur of lines Canto ~ 5~ I lay on the terrace Yesternight The clouds looked sad Swaying to unknown music I saw the sea then Noah rowing back the ark Darwin stroking his beard Shrugging his head to the beats of Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny Poetry was a pencil I rejoined the dots The stars perked up in a melody And all was a song Chorus Vapours lift Blood dances Rivers flow into veins Heart revives One beat One song One celestial stroke One universe Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam
Taseer Gujral is a poet, editor, columnist and a translator. Her published works appear in The Sunflower Collective, Coldnoon Diaries, Muse India, Open Road Review and many acclaimed anthologies. She has written columns for the DNA and the Indian Express. She is a core member of the WE (Women Empowered-India) group, and is one of the judges for the prestigious WE -Kamala Das Poetry Awards. Her interests range from Poetry, Translation, Cinema, Aesthetics and Music
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