Identity

[SELS Poetry Competition-2006
Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu]

The poem that stands the first:

IDENTITY

[Persona-1]
The military, mansions, Mercedes,
Visits, conferences, 84-meals,
Politics, war-strategies, foreign-affairs –
The nation is in race.
Ty. Ty. Ty.

[Persona-2]
Industrial estates, eye-catching products,
Attractive prices, enticing ads,
Summer villas, seashore bars –
Let people’s life be raised/razed.
Tity. Tity. Tity.

[Persona-3]
Routinely, I attend my profession.
Fixed is my income – life itself gives me happiness.
Writings & studies, social strengths, blue moon trips are
Mirages of my existence –
The world is but all sweetness and light*.
Dentity. Dentity. Dentity.

[Persona-4]
Summer through winter is my back heavy but the load you say is yours?
Day and night get my nails scratched but the land is what you hold?
Dawn to dusk is me asked to serve then thrown redundant of work?
What? You’re enjoying stepping upon me?
Fine, then. The heat of your system has made me multiple –
Your treat has stirred my anger and evoked my inner Hanuman.
Can you imagine? I’m gulping the sun.
There, your world is falling dark –
Light doesn’t pass to your land unless you
Know my IDENTITY.

*wicked but then surfacially good.

[July-20, 2006]