The Little Children in the Streets

It isn’t that this awakening is a regression
or a time warp kind of a thing
in history’s procession there are protests
and murders as well
they murder words
they murder speech
they murder thoughts which go off a tangent
then they murder murderers

The time that is spent on discourses
are profitable, provided there is rebellion
in speech
in action
in poetry

Poetry composes self, the other, the
past in deep mythic resources
in the mind, its excavations
in the language of body and soul
in slow very slow abstractions

This awakening is a horror
This awakening is mad holocaust
in the nations
in streets
in homes

Gun toting people
in caves
in railway tracks
in the cinema
in airports
in the house, the home

Poetry is one indecent, sinister
truth
in pages
in flutter of the wind
in books dog eared
in the classroom
in grotesque homilies.

The little children in the streets.

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India, where he was born and brought up. He has been writing and publishing his poetry for the last forty years. His poetry has been published in both electronic and print formats such as: Indian Literature, Other Voices, Osprey Journal, Glasgow Review, The Literary Nest, Up The Staircase, Asia Writes, Art Arena, Praxis Online, Muse India, Your One Phone Call, In Between Hangovers, The Peeking Cat Magazine, Post Colonial Text among others. He has also written widely on educational and social matters. He has ten collections of poetry and his poetry has been anthologized in various collections of Indian poetry in English. He holds a doctoral on the novels of William Golding. Read other articles by Ananya S..