Whereas Their Songs Are Not Theirs
Whereas their epistemology is fat and fair whereas their darkness ensues in moonlight’s eyelashes whereas they don’t believe life is far away from Ampani village and is equal to just a sack full of charcoals or a pint of mahua beer whereas spring is squeezed in autumn’s sun whereas the only hope — the river in the backyard of Pakur gasps heavily like a dream living below the poverty line Simon Marandi’s two acres of land whines like a rattlesnake whereas their story is not theirs whereas their songs are not theirs, whereas their history is not theirs whereas their thirst is not theirs, they relish on vinegar whereas their hunger is not theirs, they live on salty death whereas they can’t have sex daytime whereas they can’t raise their voice whereas the media is truly called presstitute whereas their rights are just like sheared straws whereas their land is not theirs; whereas their sky is not theirs it’s packed like a sachet of shampoo; whereas the rainbow is not theirs whereas the sunray is not theirs whereas the window to their heaven is not theirs whereas they can’t fuck their landlord’s wife whereas they can’t be in a relationship of their heart whereas they can’t have their own God whereas they can’t call their father, father whereas they can’t become owners of their owners life is an abandoned uninhabited solitary glitch a lonely lambent wick, still refusing to be put out life is an unsung, untagged dead body the greater pockets of fertility, the mythical blessings hides its face, body, and beauty in a void whereas life is not even like a packet of smoke whereas it’s absolutely a wound and angst whereas life is an age-old taboo whereas its a byproduct spins between void and velocity
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Pitambar Naik has a book of poetry: The Anatomy of Solitude (Hawakal). He’s a poetry/fiction reader for Remington Review and poetry editor for Minute Magazine. His work appears or forthcoming in Packingtown Review, The Indian Quarterly, New Contrast, The Ekphrastic Review, Ghost City Review, Eunoia Review, Glass Poetry, Cha Literary Journal, Vayavya, Charge Magazine, The World Belongs To Us HarperCollins India, among others. He grew up in Odisha, India.
“Whereas Their Songs are not Theirs” originally appeared in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, August 2019.
Photo by Michael Dziedzic
