Darfur Travelogue

 

Is that a moon? No, it is a dark hole

through the sky’s stomach, a bayonet mark.

Heaven bleeds through it, its black blood.

 

Do we remember that fireball?

Is that Sun? No it a searchlight

attached under a chopper’s belly.

Using it, they look for us. Hide

girls, hide behind a sand dune.

 

Are those wind marks?

Can we follow them to go where the wind goes?

No they are a vulture’s nail scratches, 

stay away from them.

 

Is that a well? that crack on the ground?

No, that is where a comet struck

killing our camels, our men,

lay a rock there, a desert flower.

 

Where is our mother? Why she is not going with us?

Mother has turned into a mirage.

let’s follow her hand signals

to reach to the point where

they no longer can hurt us.

 

    -------------- Sankar Roy

 

Sankar Roy, originally from India, is an American poet, editor, translator and multimedia artist living near Pittsburgh, Sankar's biographical information can be found in www.sankarroy.com .

 

 

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content © - Sankar Roy
Music: Bismillah Khan © - All India Radio
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